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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIANITY AMONGST THE JEWS

(Founded 1809).

Qftutct) fl)i00iong to Jeto0

Patron: THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

Vice-Patrons: Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of

England and of Ireland.
President: The Rt. Hon. Sir John H. Kennaway, Bart., C.B.

"The Society is an act of reparation before God for the
treatment of the Jews in this country in the past, and in
some parts of Europe— even to the present day."— Archbishop
of Canterbury, 1909.

231 MISSIONARY AGENTS,

Including 92 Hebrew Christians employed.

45 MISSION STATIONS.

Numerous Parochial Grants made. Hospitals (2,079 In-
patients and 46,612 Out-patients last year), Dispensaries,
Mission Schools (2,230 Scholars on the books), Industrial
and other Homes, Distribution of Scriptures and Mis-
sionary Tracts and Colportage Work.

3\£ew and extended efforts urgently
called for

Help Needed towards the present Deficit.

Rev. F. L. DENMAN, M.A., Secretary.

Rev. E. L. LANGSTON, M.A., Asst. Secretary.

Society's House :

16 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C.

WALKS ABOUT
JERUSALEM

BY THE REV.

J. E. HANAUER

LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIANITY AMONGST THE JEWS

MCMX.

PHELAN

Printed in the City of London
at the Edinburgh Press

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I i—5

Knights Templars— The German Temple— Panorama— First
view of Jerusalem— Colour of city walls— Mud shower— Jaffa
Gate — Visit of Kaiser William — Memorial drinking fountain —
Other names of Jaffa Gate — Arabic inscription — Moslem escha-
tology — Alterations and innovations.

CHAPTER II - - 6—io

The Citadel — Herodian towers — Site of Herod's palace and
garden — Depth of debris — Discoveries during excavations — De-
scription of traditional Hippicus — Survival of an old custom —
The Armenian quarter and Convent— Valuable relics— Shield of
Hamza — Pilgrim quarters and printing press.

CHAPTER III - - 11—18

Armenian Church of St. James — The Apostle's chair and
grave — Patriarchal chair — Shrine of St. James' head — Old frescoes
— Gongs — Historical associations — Modern drinking fountain — Old
olive tree — Traditional House of Annas — Absurd traditions — An-
cient pine trees — Ruins of Crusading chapel of St. Thomas —
Syrian convent, house of Mary, mother of Mark — St. Luke's
painting of the Virgin — The Jewish quarter — Theatre Street.

CHAPTER IV 19—24

Quarters of German Crusaders and Teutonic Knights —
Another Church of St. Thomas— Site of St. Martin's Church-
Palace of Herod Agrippa — Palace of High Priest — Synagogues
— Legend of Elijah — Karaite Synagogue — Deutscher Platz — Re-
moval of ancient nuisances — The Zion Gate.

CHAPTER V 25—34

North-western part of Jerusalem — Excavations and discoveries
— The loth Legion — Importance of discoveries — View from
houses on site of Asmonean Palace — Viri Galilee — Modern Greek
and Latin religious establishments — The Latin Patriarchate —
Franciscan institutions — The Crusaders' Almanac — Great Greek
Convent and Library — Traditional Pool of Hezekiah — Traces and
courses of Second Wall.

774218

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VI 35-43

Surface levels — A new Gate — Remains at French Boys' School
— Course of valley-beds — Double pool of Bethesda — Birket Israel
— Plan of City — Course of Second Wall — Models of rock-site of
Church of the Holy Sepulchre— Historical note— Extant remains—
Chosroes — Omar — Charlemagne — Haroun Al Raschid — The late
Emperor Frederic, and his son, the present Kaiser — The Erloser-
Kirche — The mad Khalif El Hakim — Invasion by the Kharez-
mians — The great fire of 1808.

CHAPTER VII 44—51

Modern dome of the Church of the Sepulchre — Approach to
the church — Patriarch Street — Hammam El Batrak — Intolerance
towards Jews— Legend— Christian Street— Remarkable ancient
dam — An old pilaster — Knights Hospitallers and the Crusading
Patriarch— Great courtyard— Convent and chapels of Abraham
and the twelve Apostles— The Greek olive tree and its Abyssinian
rival— Ruins of Crusaders' Abbey— Abyssinian hovels— Dome of
St. Helena's church — Armenian chapel of St. James, Coptic of
St. Michael— Greek of Mary of Egypt— Illustrative paintings-
Lion legends— Carvings of lions— Chapels on the western side
of great court— Bell tower— Fight between Greek and Latin
monks— Tombstone of Sir Philip D'Aubeny Biographical note.

CHAPTER VIII - - . - - 52—58

Twelfth century carvings on lintels of Church portals-
Moslem door-keepers— Staircase to Calvary— Stone of Unction-
Tombs of Godfrey and Baldwin— Tombs of Melchisedec and
Adam— The Calvary chapel— Cleft in the rock— Latin altar-
Chapel of Mary's agony— Station of the women— Stairs to Ar-
menian galleries— Chapels of the Resurrection and the Angel.

CHAPTER IX . 59—63

Place where the "Holy Fire" issues— Popular notions— Prob-
able origin of ceremony — Crowding of sacred sites — Description
ofJSepulchre— Opinion of an eminent Roman Catholic authority
on Palestine.

vi.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER X 64—71

Description of Tomb chapel — Syrian chapel — Coptic oratory —
Jewish rock-hewn tombs — Blocked entrances — Similar tombs in
Coptic convent — Earthworks of XV Legion — Site of John's mon-
ument— The Rotunda — Ventilating turret — Franciscan chapels —
Relics of Godfrey in Latin vestry — Northern transept of church —
Chapel of the Stocks and prison — Eastern ambulatory and chapels
— Staircase to lower levels — St. Helena's chapel — Cavern of the
Invention of the Cross — Memorial altar to Maximilian, Emperor
of Mexico — Closed window — Greek Cathedral — Centre of the
World.

CHAPTER XI - - 72—81

Harat ed Dabbaghah — Oriental mode of shewing contempt
of rival religions — Fragments of ancient masonry in Russian
Hospice — The Muristan — Corn Bazaar — Kaiser Friedrich's Strasse
— Hospice ana church of St. John the Forerunner — Ancient sub-
terranean church — Three parallel bazaars — Varieties of costume.

CHAPTER XII 82—87

Description of bazaars — Roman pavement — Old lettering —
Traces of Hadrian's colonnades— Medeba mosaic.

CHAPTER XIII 88—94

David Street— Northern city in times of early kings of Judah—
Maronite convent — Former residence of Rev. J. Nicolayson —
Crusading chapel of St. James the son of Alphaeus, behind
Christ Church— L.J.S. House of Industry workshops— Ancient
tower chamber — The Porta Ferrea — Jacobite or Syrian convent
—Harat el Jawa'neh— The Gate Gennath, so-called— House of
Zebedee. HI

CHAPTER XIV 95—99

Site of St. Giles' Abbey— Saracenic style of architecture—
The Mehkemeh— Site of a Council chamber of the Sanhedrin—
Associated with history of St. Paul— A i6th century fountain-
Aqueduct from ''Pools of Solomon"— Wilson's Arch— Warren's
Masonic Hall— Alleged discovery of Tomb of David, etc.

vii.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XV 100—105

Descent into Tyropoeon— Harat el Magharibeh— The Jews'
Wailing Place — Great lintel of an ancient temple gate — Sir C.
"Warren's excavations— A nail in God's holy place— Jews' as-
sembling— Antiquity of custom.

CHAPTER XVI 106—114

Bab es Silsileh— Temple gate "Shallecheth" or "Coponius"—
Going up to the Sanctuary — Rules to be observed by worshippers
"going up" — Ancient pavement — Southern bridge over Tyropoeon
— Rock cutting or tunnel for aqueduct from "Pools of Solomon"
— Robinson''s Arch — Sir Charles Warren's excavations and dis-
coveries.

CHAPTER XVII 115—122

Masonry of different periods— Depth of debris— Millo— Hajar
el Hablah — Rock dwellings — The Ophel-Zion theory — Arguments
for this theory stated and answered.

CHAPTER XVIII 123—128

Minaret marking position of Pool of Siloam — Traditional site
of Isaiah's death— Mount of Corruption— Exterior of Western
Huldah or Double Gate — Carvings and inscription — Supposed
head of a statue of Hadrian— The Triple Gate— Gigantic course
of gigantic stones— The "rejected" corner stone— Single Gate-
Solomon's Stables — Discoveries during excavations.

CHAPTER XIX 129—135

Herodian vaults and remains of tower — Death of St. James the
Less— Cave with fullers' vats, discovered by Sir Charles Warren
— S.E. corner of Temple enclosure — Depth of debris — Phoenician
mason marks — Wall and towers on Ophel — Mohammed's Judg-
ment seat — Fate of a Mahdi — Ancient columns — Moslem graves —
Century plant— The Golden Gate— Crusading postern— Herod's
colonnades.

Viii.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XX 136—139

The Golden Gate — Historical associations — Massacre of the
Jews by Heraclius— Origin of the name "Golden Gate"— Cru-
sading procession on Palm Sundays— Dragoman tale— Hebrew
inscription.

CHAPTER XXI .... 140—143

Moslem cemetery — Mourners' visits — Depth of debris — A filled-
up valley — St. Stephen's Gate — Herodian tower at N.E. angle
of Temple-area— Birket Israel— Abbey of St. Anne— Biblical
Museum — Stone weight.

CHAPTER XXII - - - - - 144—151

Legend of St. Anne — Bethesda — Location of Sheep Gate —
The twin pools — Historical note — Ex voto of Pompeiia Lucilia —
Description of eastern pool — Remains of crypt — Church of St.
Anne — Remarkable features — Mysticism of mediaeval architects —
A paper war.

CHAPTER XXIII - - - 152—161

Further remarks on history of St. Anne's Church — Crusading
stones with "masons' marks" — Origin of latter — A vestige of
the Antonia — Chapel of the Crowning with Thorns — Via Dolorosa
and Chapels of the Flagellation — Ancient pavement — Nunnery
and arch of the "Ecce Homo" — Another pair of twin pools —
Ancient aqueduct — Oriental time — An interesting survival — Re-
markable rock scarp — Curious pedestals — Romanist Mission to
the Jews — Its founder — House and legend of St. Veronica — El
Khankeh.

CHAPTER XXIV 162—169

Christian Street again — Patriarch's entrance to Church of the
Holy Sepulchre — Mosque of the Serpent Charm — Modern mosque
— El Tekiyeh — A Moslem charity — Entrance to the Cotton Bazaar
discovery — A huge cistern — "The Maktesh" — Excavations at St.
Maria Latina — The modern Serai — So-called "Hospital of Helena"
— El Tekiyeh — A Moslem charity — Entrance to the Cotton Bazaar
— Description — Baths and draw-well — Historical note — Approach

to Temple-area.

ix.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXV 170—178

Bab el Kattanin — Saracenic Arcades — Medresset el Ashrafiyeh
— Curious chamber in mosque of El Borak — Ancient gate passage
and lintel — The night journey of Mohammed — Saracenic build-
ings and schools — Herod's western cloisters — Tenz's models —
Arthur's leap — Western gates of Herod's Temple — Existing re-
mains— Sebil Kayet Bey.

CHAPTER XXVI - - 179—187

Reconstruction of Herod's and former Jewish temples made
possible — Various theories — Principal modern views — S chick's
and Tenz's models — Haram Area as seen from S.W. minaret —
And also from N.W. corner — El Mawazin — Dome of El Khudr —
Rock levels — Approximate site of Beth Moked — Description —
Remarkable rock-hewn cisterns — Kubbet Es Silsileh — Buildings
of time of Christ — Their approximate positions — Marble pulpit —
The Liscath Ha Gazith — Casting the lot.

CHAPTER XXVII "^ 188—197

Abd el Malik's reasons for erecting Kubbet es Sakkhrah —
The great mosaic inscription — Historical note — Description —
Legend of two birds and Solomon — Breydenbach's picture —
Encaustic tiles — Dome of the Chain — Legends — Danger of perjury
— Crusading capital in a minaret — Approximate identification of
various spots.

CHAPTER XXVIII - - * 198—206

Crusading chapel of the Presentation — Interior of Dome of
the ,Rock — Mosaic windows — Old material re-used — Remarkable
monolithic columns — Curious discovery — Statement by Procopius
— Mosaics — The mediaeval grille — The Rock — Various traditions —
Boundary line between territory of Benjamin and Judah — Curious
colonnettes — The cave and legends.

CHAPTER XXIX 207—214

Bir El Arwah — The Lapis pertusus — Identification by Williams
— Tradition concerning the Temple treasures — Marble pulpit — A
broad staircase — El Kas — Water supply and cisterns — The "Great
Sea" and "Well of the Captivity"— Story of Nicodemus ben
Gorion — Porch of the Mosque El Aksa — Interior of and Galleries
from Double Gate — Remarkable columns.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXX 215—225

The Masjid El Aksa— Description— "Mihrab" and "Mumbar"—
Ordeal columns — Remains of Knights Templars' quarters — Cce-
naculum — Christian cemeteries — Supposed refectory or fencing
hall of Templars' — Mosque of Omar — Curious columns and capi-
tals—Chapel of El Arba'in, and of Yahia— Tomb of the Sons of
Aaron — Supposed grave of murderers of Thomas a Becket —
Solomon's seat — Legend — Dome of the little Rock — Turkish bar-
racks on the site of Antonia — Historical associations — Mediaeval
churches on Bezetha — The Jewish quarter of Crusading times —
View from roof of the C. M. S. Girls' School.

CHAPTER XXXI 226—238

Historical evolution of Jerusalem — Uru Salima, or Yebus —
Mixed population — Israelite invasion and settlement — Capture
by David and Joab — Building of city walls — Millo — Solomon's
buildings — Use of the names "Zion" and "Daughter of Zion" —
Fortifications by later kings — The Maktash — Destruction by
Nebuchadnezzar and restoration by Nehemiah — Jerusalem in
the time of Christ — After destruction by Titus — The Legionary
Camp, and Hebrew-Christian quarter, etc. — /Elia Capitolina —
Present area — Concluding remarks.

APPENDICES 239—257

WORKS OF REFERENCE QUOTED FROM OR

MENTIONED IN THE TEXT - 259

SPECIAL SCRIPTURE REFERENCES - 260

xi.

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

First View of Jerusalem 2

New entrance between Jaffa Gate and

Citadel 3

Cabstand outside the Jaffa Gate 4

II.

Tower of David 7

Tower of David and Hippicus 8

Shield of Hamza 10

III.

Church of the Armenian Convent of

St. James 12

St. James' Shrine

Porch of St. James' Church with

gongs

Square in front of Armenian Convent
Entrance to Convent of St. James
Ruin of the Syrian Church of St

Thomas
View in Harat el Meidan (Theatre

Street)

IV.

Perushim Synagogue (interior) 19
Great Synagogue of the Chassidim 20

Do. (interior) 21

Der Deutsche Platz 22

Zion Gate 23

Shops by Zion Gate, and on site of

Leper Village 24

Fragment of a Roman tile 25

Ancient Roman column with inscrip-
tion and modern lamp stand 26
View from site of the Asmonean's

house 27

Church of St. Salvator from the

north 28

Ditto from the south 29

Church and Convent of Notre Dame
de France 29

Latin Patriarchate and Church 30

Another view of Franciscan Convent

and Church of St. Salvator 31

Greek Convent and domes of Church

of the Holy Sepulchre 32

Pool of Hezekiah 33

VI.

New Gate— Bab es Sultan Abdul

Hamid 35

Plan of Jerusalem 36

Model of original rock-site of tradi-

ditional Calvary, etc. 37

Ground model of Church of the

Holy Sepulchre 38

German Church (Erloser-Kirche) 39

VII.

Stairs leading from Christian Street
to courtyard of Church of Holy
Sepulchre 43

Chapel of the twelve Apostles 45

Porch of chapel with walled-up olive

tree 46

Rival olive-tree in Abyssinian con-
vent 47
Abyssinian Convent and dome of St.

Helena 48

Church of the Holy Sepulchre with

Bell-tower, etc. 49

Tomb of Sir Philip D'Aubeny 50

VIII.

Sculpture on lintel of portal to

Church of the Holy Sepulchre 52

Ditto Ditto 52

Fragment in Paris 53

Stone of Unction 54

Calvary Chapel 55

Chapel of the Resurrection in the

Rotunda 56

Chapel of the Resurrection 57

Entrance to the Chapel of the Angel 58

IX.

The Holy Fire, place of exit 60

Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre 61

Interior of the Holy Sepulchre 62

Ventilating turret 65

Church of St. Helena 66

Greek Cathedral 69

Mons Calvarius, from an old book 70

Xlll.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

XI.

PAGE

Ancient Masonry in Russian Hospice 72

Ditto Ditto 73

Patched-up gateway Ditto 74

Ancient wall Ditto 75
Ruins of Church of St. Mary the

Latin (Hospital of Knights of St.

John) 76

Crusading Cloisters, south of Church

of St. Mary the Latin 77

Mediaeval doorway in the Cloisters 78

Measuring wheat 79

Entrance to Church of St. John

the Forerunner 80

XII.

Vaulted Bazaar
Street Scene
Chained Prisoner

Medeba Mosaic Map of Jerusalem,

shewing "Street of Columns" 86

XIII.

Vestiges of the traditional "Porta

Ferrea" 87

Saracenic Arch on site of the "Porta

Ferrea" 89

Entrance to Syrian Convent 90

Archway in David Street 92

XIV.
Portal of Saracenic building on site

of St. Giles' Abbey 94

Saracenic building 96

Another Saracenic building 97

Arabesques on Saracenic building 98

Stalactite ornaments outside windows 101

Portal of Medresset et Tunguzieh 103

XV.

Jews' Wailing Place 104

Ditto as seen from the Mehkemeh 105

Ditto Ditto i ->6

XVI.

A view of Bab es Silsileh

Ditto

Ditto
Robinson's Arch restored

View looking northward up the Tyro-
pceon

Modern buildings on site of the As-

monean Palace 112

Entrance to aqueduct-tunnel 113

Robinson's Arch, present condition 114

107
1 08
109
no

ill

xvn.

Masonry of different periods 115

Western end of south wall of Temple

Enclosure 116

View of Millo 117

Another view of Millo 118

View from the brow of Zion 119

South wall of the City and Millo 120

"Hajar el Hablah, " in south wall 121

Entrances to rock-dwellings 122

Ditto 122

View from the modern Dung Gate 123

XVIII.

Pool of Siloam

Head of a statue of Hadrian

Ancient masonry at S.E. angle
Temple Enclosure

124
125

127

Triple Gate in south wall of Temple

Enclosure 128

Single gate near S.E. angle 129

Solomon's Stables 130

XIX.

Looking from S.E. angle towards

Mohammed's Judgment-seat 131

Ends of columns and Moslem tombs 132

Century-plant on a tomb 133

Interior of the Golden Gate 134

Crusading postern in the wall 135

XX.

Ancient fountain at Jerusalem 136

Golden Gate from the east 138

Golden Gate from the west 139

XXI.

Herodian tower with large stones 140

Open space by the wall 141

St. Stephen's Gate 142

Church of St. Anne and Seminary 143

Stone weight in the museum 144

XXII.

Eastern subterranean twin-pool 145
Old crypt above twin-pool, and under

Church of St. Maria 146

Ditto shewing apse of Ditto 147

Church of St. Anne 148

Interior of St. Anne's Church 149

XIV.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
XXIII.

Dome of the Rock from Bab Hytta 153

Fragment of Tower of Antonia 154
Reconstruction of the "Ecce Homo"

Arch 155

Altar in "Ecce Homo" Chapel 156

City wall, near Solomon's Quarries,

shewing walled-up aqueduct 157

Via Dolorosa 158

House of Veronica 159

XXIV.

Ancient Arabic inscription from orig-
inal Mosque of Omar's Prayer-
place 163
Excavations at St. Maria Latina 164
Entrance to Cotton-merchants' Bazaar 165
Staircase trom Cotton-bazaar to

Temple-area 166

Saracenic Fountain 168

XXV.

Bab el Kattanin 171

Porch of Medresset el Ashrafiyeh 172
Dome of Mohammed's Ascension 173

Tenz's model of Herod's Temple

(view from S.W.) 174

Saracenic Cloisters 175

Drinking fountain of Kayet Bey 176

Plan of the Haram Area 177

XXVI.

Tenz's model of Herod's Temple

(view from N.E.) 180

View of Haram Area, looking

towards N.E. 181

Ditto looking S.E. 182

Arcades or "Balances" at N.W. corn-
er of Platform 183

Arcade and marble pulpit on site of

inner Water-gate 184

Dome of the Rock from the S.E. 185

XXVII.

Arcade on top of stairs marking
approximate site of Holy of Holies 189

Mosaics and clerestory windows 190
Dome of the Rock and the Dome of

the Chain 191

South door of Dome of the Rock 192

Picture of Haram Area, A.D. 1483—4 '93

Tiled ornamentation of exterior 195

Crusading Capital in a minaret 196

XXVIII.

Dome of the Rock, often but wrong-
ly called "The Mosque of Omar" 199
Sacred Rock under the Dome 201

Column in quarry
Column inside railing

PAGE
XXIX.
Open-air pulpit 206

Staircase and Basin "El Kas" 208

Sebil Kayet Bey, from the Temple

platform 209

Porch of Mosque "El Aksa" 210

Galleries to western Huldah, or
Double Gate 211

212
213

XXX.
Nave of Mosque El Aksa 216

Southern end of El Aksa, shewing
" Mihrab " (prayer niche) and
" Mumbar " (pulpit) 217

Tomb of David and site of Dormi-

tion Church 218

Ccenaculum, supposed Chamber of the

Last Supper 219

Cemetery adjoining the Tomb of

David 220

Porch to Templars' Hall in Temple-
area 221

North-west corner of Temple-area,

shewing stairs to Antonia 223

XXXI.

Diagram — City of David 227

City of Solomon 228

,, Jerusalem at time of de-
struction by Nebuchadnezzar 229

,, Jerusalem as restored by

Nehemiah 230

,, Jerusalem in the time of

our Lord 231

,, Legionary Camp 232

jElia Capitolina 233

,, Modern Jerusalem 234

APPENDIX I.

Citadel of Jerusalem 240

Jorat el Anab 241

Birket es Sultan, shewing Cattle
Market, Cistern, Dam and Foun-
tain, and British Ophthalmic Hos-
pital 242

Mural Inscription of Soleiman the
Magnificent 243

The Valley of Hinnom
Judas' Tree

244
245

Rachel's Tomb, with Beit Jala in

distance 246

Dislocated stone pipes of Roman
Syphon 247

Lower Pools of Solomon 248

Upper Pools and Frank Mountain 249
Bethlehem and the Frank Mountain 250

Church and Convent of Sisterhood

of the "Hortus Conclusus." 251

APPENDIX II.
Ancient bronze vessel found in Cyprus 254

XV.

ERRATA

Chapter I., page 2, 2nd line from bottom : " the present
potent ruler of the Ottoman Empire " should read " Sultan
Abdul Hamid."

Chapter III., page u, 3rd line from top: " is of the interior,
showing " should read " is of the interior of the church,
shewing."

Chapter IV., page 16, 8th and gth lines from top: " Eastern
boundary " should read " principal street."

Chapter V., page 25, yth line from top : " native " should
read " votive."

Chapter VI., page 36, ist line from top : /J\ should be 7£.

Chapter X.. page 64, 4th line from top : " This circle is
26 feet long " should read " This chapel is 26 feet long."

Chapter XII.. page 85, 4th line from bottom : $ should
be cf>

Chapter XIV.. page 96. 5th line from top: "on page 41.
etc." should read "on page 136 of this book, and another
on page 41, etc."

Chapter XIV.. page 98. 3rd line from top: " about " should
read " above."

Chapter XVI., page in, last line: "84" should read "87."

Chapter XXII.. page 143, 5th line from top: "on the left"
should read " on the right."

Chapte:: XXIII,, page 155, 7th line from bottom: "triumph-
ant " should read " triumphal."

Chapter XXVI., page 186, 2oth line from bottom: "Of
Firstthings " should read " Of Firstlings."

Chapter XXVII., page 194, 2oth line from top : " (A.D.
1620 — 5o) " should read " (A.D. 1520 — 5o)."

Chapter XXXI., page 231: On diagram 176, transpose the
figures 3 and 4. and do the same on page 232, fourth and
fifth lines from bottom. The corrections should read " fig.
3, the council-chamber close to the gate Shallechet." and
" fig. 4, the Xystus."

Chapter XXXI., page 233: The diagram (178) ought to be
entitled " Modern Jerusalem," placed on page 234, and
numbered (179).

Chapter XXXI.. page 234: The diagram (179) ought to be
entitled "^Elia Capitolina, A.D. 135," placed on page 233,
and numbered (178). In short, these two diagrams should
be interchanged.

Appendix I., page 239, i8th line from bottom: " Kelann "
should read " Kelaun."

Appendix I., page 239, 5th line from bottom: "four years
ago " should read " several years ago "

Appendix I., page 244, nth line from top: "accustomed
to march " should read " accustomed to meet."

Appendix I., page 250. gth line from top: "dwelling"
should read " dwellings."

WALKS ABOUT
JERUSALEM

Y REQUEST I am about to act as guide to
those who wish to know about the sites and
scenes of Jerusalem, but who have no chance
of beholding them except in pictures. I will
therefore suppose that — under the wing of one
of the tourist agencies, which now in modern
times practically do the work, minus fighting
the Saracens, for which the famous monastic
and military order of Knights Templars was established in
A.D. 1118 — we have safely reached the little railway-station S.E.
of the town, and close to the neat colony occupied by the
members of "the German Temple." This is not a monkish
brotherhood, but an ultra-Protestant sect, which professes to
desire to build up God's Kingdom and the German Temple by
settling in the Holy Land.

As we leave the station and reach the great Bethlehem-road,
there suddenly spreads out before us a wide panorama. Begin-
ning with the hill of Evil Counsel on our right, the eye ranges,
as it gradually turns toward the left, over the Moab hills, Olivet
and Scopus, with Gethsemane and Siloam nestling at their feet,
to the great dark greyish-blue domes of the buildings in the
Temple area and other edifices within the long line of tawny
wall and towers that form the southern limit of the city. Here it
may be as well to call attention to the fact that all the exposed
southern and eastern faces of the fortifications and older build-
ings are of this ochre colour, which was caused by a remarkable
shower of yellow mud that fell early in February, 1857 (see
" Jewish Intelligence " for July, 1857, page 221), " plastering the
houses from top to bottom," the traces of which the rains of
forty-eight winters have not yet washed away. The northern

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

and western faces of buildings become blackish-grey wherever
exposed to ram and damp.

The approach to the city follows in inverse order the course
described in my notes on a visit to Artas,* and the different
points there mentioned, the Jewish settlements, the Birket-es-
Sultan, the Ghazza Towers, and the Citadel are all passed on
the road leading to the city (see illustration i.)

(i) The First View of Jerusalem.

In a few minutes we have reached the Jaffa Gate. Up to the
year 1898, this gate was connected with the citadel by a wall
crossing the ditch surrounding the latter. When, however, prep-
arations were made for the reception of the Emperor William,
this part ot the great trench was filled up, and the wall lowered.
There is now a great and imposing approach to the interior
of the city between the Jaffa Gate Tower, and the north-western
tower of the citadel and the " Grand New Hotel," just inside the
Jaffa Gate. At the foot of the tower, is the drinking fountain
erected a few years ago to commemorate the Jubilee of the
present potent ruler of the Ottoman Empire (see illustration 2).
This is the only gate in the western wall of Jerusalem, and that

* Appendix I.

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which has the most traffic. Though horribly modern, having
been built at the time the present walls were erected by Suleiman
the Magnificent (circa 1542), it doubtless stands on the site of an
ancient city gate, in all probability on that by which, in our
Lord's days, an aqueduct conveyed water into Herod's great
Citadel-Palace close by. Though called the " Jaffa Gate " by
Europeans, its present name amongst the natives is " Bab ul
Khalil," or " the Gate of the Friend," i.e., Abraham, the reason
being that the road to Hebron starts from here. An ornamental
Arabic inscription facing us as we enter, reminds us that "There
is no God but Allah, and that Ibrahim is His friend."

By Arab writers before the sixteenth century, the gate at

(2) The New Entrance between the Jaffa Gate and trie Citadel.

this spot is sometimes called " Bab el Mihrab," from the " Mihrab
Daoud," or " Oratory of David," shown in the adjacent castle,
and sometimes "Bab Lydd," i.e., "the Gate of Lydda." This
is because the road to that place starts from this point; and also
because some Moslem theologians believe that the Gate .of
Lydda, where, according to the eschatology of Islam, the Messih
el Dejjal, or Antichrist, will be defeated and slain by our Lord,
is the western gate of Jerusalem. Others, learned in the faith
of Mohammed, assert that the great event will take place at

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Lydda itself, and mention, as the actual spot, the famous Bir es
Zaybac, or " Quicksilver Well," inside the little building, under
the great sycamore, half-way between Ramleh and Lydda.

A most remarkable change has taken place in the appearance
of the immediate surroundings of the Jaffa Gate since I first
knew it over fifty years ago. It was a time of general trouble
and unrest throughout the world — the time of the Crimean war,
and the Indian Mutiny, and the massacres in the Lebanon.
There were then no houses outside the city walls, except the
Neby Daoud block outside the Zion Gate, and Bishop Gobat's

(3) Cab-stand outside the Jaffa Gate.

School then in building, and a small house on Consul Finn's
plantation. The desert country reached on every side right
up to the town-walls. One was in the open country as soon as
one emerged from the gates, which were closed at sunset, and
also on Fridays, from eleven in the forenoon till one in the
afternoon, during the time that the garrison were at their weekly
prayers in the mosque; and no one could either enter or leave
the city unless provided with a special permit, not always obtain-
able, from the Pasha.

The writer, on several occasions about 1867, when he was
serving on Sir Charles Warren's excavations, had himself lowered

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by a rope over the city-wall close to the Haram, in order to
be at his appointed post outside the town. At the time I
am speaking of, there was no traffic at the gates. A Turkish
soldier, armed with Minie rifle and sword bayonet, stood there
on guard, and in the deep alcoves, now used as stalls for
the sale of soda-water, iced drinks and fruit, cooked food,
etc., there stood racks on which rows of rifles were ranged.
The roadway was unpaved. In the rainy season there was a
"slough of despond" just outside the gateway, and in the
open space just beyond the inside, and within the city, a pond
about one foot deep in the centre, but which might be passed
if .you used the small and slippery stepping-stones which a muni-
cipality regardful of public comfort, had placed for a couple of
yards or so along the northern edge. In summer the bed of the
little lake was encumbered with all sorts of filth, and not un-
frequently by the rotting carcases of dogs, cats, and smaller
creatures.

A change for the better came soon after the accession of
Sultan Abd ul Aziz, in whose time the road-way was paved by
gangs of prisoners brought from the common jail, and made to
work in chains. This was in the year 1864, about the same time
that the first line of telegraph was laid, and the first petroleum
oil and lamps for its use were imported, as well as the first
steam-engine set up in the Holy City. Since then, other European
innovations, not in every case improvements, have come in.
Thus, just outside the gate, there is now a cab-stand (see illus-
tration 3), which is very useful.

CHAPTER II.

MONGST the scores of traditional or doubtfully
historical sites pointed out within the walls of
Jerusalem, there are at any rate three, which are
really interesting, even though in the case of only
two of them, viz., the Citadel, and the Temple area,
are archaeologists agreed that they really occupy
the historic ground they represent. I propose on this occasion
to speak of the first of these two, leaving the Haram and the
famed Church of the Holy Sepulchre to be described at a
future time.

The Citadel, also called the Tower of David, though that
name is often used in a restricted manner to designate the
remarkable and ancient structure at its present north-east corner,
is situated south of the Jaffa Gate, from which it was, before
the visit of the German Emperor in 1898, separated by a deep
fosse. This was purposely filled up at this point, in order to fur-
nish a more imposing approach to the interior of the city, than
that through the Jaffa Gate. The Citadel, known in Crusading
times as the Castle of the Pisans, consists of three principal towers
connected by a massive crenellated ;wall, loopholed for musketry,
with a glacis or sloping work rising from the bottom of the
trench, part of which is undoubtedly ancient Roman masonry
dating back to New Testament times. All authorities are agreed
that this fortress, the interior of which is in ruins, occupies the
site of the palace-castle of Herod the Great, or at any rate, part
of that site.

That building was remarkable for its three great towers
named Phasaelus, Hippicus and Mariamne, and it is believed
that the two towers standing one at the north-west, and the other
at the north-east corner of the Citadel mark the exact position
of the two first-named. Though the tower at the north-east
angle is popularly called Hippicus by local guides, it corresponds
in its general plan-measurements with the description given by
Josephus of the Phasaelus. It would follow that the tower just
south of the Jaffa Gate, stands on the site of Hippicus, it having
been found by the English Royal Engineers who had charge
of the first Ordnance Survey in 1841, that its plan-measurements

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tally with those that belonged to Hippicus. Connected with
Herod's great structures in this part of Jerusalem as it was in
the time of our Lord, there were extensive gardens and pleasure
grounds, which spread over the tract now occupied by Christ

(4) The Tower of David.

Church, the L. J. S. boys' school and the present Armenian
quarter. As a matter of fact, it is not at all unlikely that the
stately pine-trees which are scattered about over the open plots
of ground we meet with here and there in this neighbourhood,
may be the direct descendants of seedlings from Herod's groves.
The depth of debris hereabouts is very considerable.

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When the foundations of Christ Church were laid, the work-
men were obliged to dig to the depth of forty feet before they
struck rock. When they did at last find it, they came across a
very remarkable underground passage, probably intended as a
conduit for water. Some authorities have suggested that this
may be the aqueduct in which, according to Josephus (B. J.
ii. 17 § 9) Ananias, the high priest, the same man who, whilst
presiding at the trial of St. Paul by the Sanhedrin (Acts xxiii. 2),
illegally ordered the Apostle to be struck— hid himself from the
robbers, who, however, eventually found and murdered him.

(5) The Tower of David and Hippicus.

In front of Christ Church there is at this moment lying the shaft
of a large granite column which was dug up during these exca-
vations,* and must originally have been brought from Egypt in
order to adorn Herod's buildings hereabouts. Another column,
and also a large catapult-ball, are preserved in the boys' school
close by, whilst, during excavations in the Mohammedan premises
just south of the school, the remains of a beautiful chamber,
constructed altogether of marble, were found at a considerable
depth below the present surface.

* Another similar column has been discovered quite recently as well as a very beauti-
ful mosaic pavement.

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The lower part of the traditional Hippicus is constructed of
great blocks of drafted stone, and has been ascertained to be
quite solid right through. On the top of this there is a large
chamber of mediaeval times, which is provided with a Mihrab
or niche in its southern wall, shewing that the apartment, now
used as a dormitory for the Turkish soldiers quartered here,
was at one time a mosque. From the roof a somewhat disap-
pointing view can be had over the city.

On the roof of the tower there are old pieces of ordnance,
which are frequently used on special occasions, such as anni-
versaries of the birth and accession of the Sultan, and Moslem
festivals, to fire salutes, and also to announce to the Moham-
medans of the district the proper hours for beginning or
breaking their fast during the month of Ramadan. The effect
of the cannonade is most startling and disturbing whenever it
happens, as it often does at an hour during which a service is
proceeding in Christ Church.

The same remark is applicable to the Turkish brass band,
which plays almost every afternoon in the open space in front
of the castle and Ibrahim Pasha's barracks, just as it used to do
several centuries ago, as we are told by the Moslem historian
Mujir-ed-din Ubil-yemen Abd-er-Rahman, son of El 'Alemi, who
died in A.H. 927 (A.D. 1520 — 21), and whose descendants still
form a well-known family here. Immediately opposite the eastern
front of the castle are situated, counting from the north south-
wards, Cook's office and the United States' Consulate, the Aus-
trian post office, Christ Church premises and boys' school, and
the Anglo-Palestine Bank. Further south, and reaching to the
city-wall, are various buildings connected chiefly with the great
Armenian Convent of St. James, the son of Zebedee, the first
Apostolic martyr, the burial-place of whose head is shown in a
shrine, the doors of which are richly inlaid with tortoiseshell and
nacre. The very chair used by the Apostle is also shewn; and,
as a great favour, and to specially distinguished visitors, some of
the interesting objects, preserved in the treasury of the convent,
and consisting of ancient vestments, mitres and valuable copies
of the Armenian liturgies and gospels, and the amber sceptre of
the Armenian king Hetum, etc., are exhibited by special per-
mission of the Patriarch. In the central hall of the college there
is also an interesting collection of objects from various coun-
tries, whilst on the wall of the Patriarch's great reception-room
there hang good pictures of various European monarchs, and
also replicas, made by one of his predecessors, of the beautiful

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"Shield of Hamza,"* which, a quarter of a century ago, was
still to be seen in the Dome of the Rock, but has now mys-
teriously disappeared from there. The convent, originally
founded by the Georgians in the nth century, was sold by
them to the Armenians four hundred years later. It can, it
is said, accommodate from 3,000 to 4,000 pilgrims, and contains
a printing-press.

(53) The Shield of Hamza.

* Hamza was the uncle of Mohammed (See Sale's "Koran," footnotes to pp. 45, 206,
Chandos' Classic edition). The beautiful object traditionally called his shield was
in reality an ancient Chinese mirror and is interesting as a proof of the varied
and extensive commercial traffic between Palestine and Eastern Asia during the
Middle Ages.

CHAPTER HI.

R last chapter closed with a short description of
the Armenian Convent of St. James. Illustration 6
is of the interior, shewing, under the domed canopy,
the back of his traditional episcopal chair, said to
be placed over his grave. The other chair, the
back of which is seen to the right of the former,
is that of the Armenian Patriarch.

Illustration 7 shews the shrine, with doors richly inlaid with
mother-of-pearl and tortoise-shell, where St. James' head is
said to have been buried.

On the walls there hang the quaint and grim old fresco-paint-
ings representing the sufferings of martyrs, the last judgment,
and also pictures of various saints.

In the porch of this church are two curious and interesting
gongs hanging in the south-eastern corner (illustration 8); one
of them is a plank of some hard wood suspended from the
ceiling by ropes at either end, the other a long and thick plate
of iron hung in the same way at the end of chains. Similar
gongs are to be found in other Eastern monasteries. They are
called "nakus" (plural "nawakis") and serve to call to mind
one of the terms of the treaty made with the Christians, when,
in A.D. 637, Jerusalem surrendered to the Khalifeh Omar bin
El Khattab.* The stipulation in question was that the Christians
were not to be allowed the use of bells on their churches, but
might use these gongs. This regulation was strictly re-inforced
when the Crusaders were expelled by Salad ud din in 1187. In
1823 the only bell in Jerusalem is said to have been a hand-bell
in the Franciscan convent. Since the fall of Acre, in 1840,
however, Christians have had more freedom, and it is probable
that the old bell of Christ Church was one of the first amongst
the many introduced in modern times.

Before leaving the porch we notice a number of grotesque
little faces painted here and there in the colouring on the walls.

* The Moslem tradition is that God commanded Noah to use such a gong in order
to call together the workmen building the ark, therefore gongs are permissible.

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At the entrance to the convent is the drinking-fountain erected
to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the accession to the
throne of Turkey of His Majesty Sultan Abd ul Hamid. Closely
connected with the convent of St. James is the Armenian nun-
nery of Ez Zeituny, or "the olive-tree," so called because a tree
in the court-yard is said to be the very plant to which our Lord
was tied whilst His persecutors were deliberating as to His fate!
The mediaeval church in this nunnery, which is said by tradi-
tion to stand on the site of the house of the high-priest Annas,

(7) St. James' Shrine.

contains the usual ornamentation of encaustic tiles and paint-
ings. It is remarkable for the number of crosses of different
shapes (over thirty have been noted), to be seen on the walls.
Close to the olive-tree a stone forming part of the corner of a
building is pointed out to the visitor, who must, for politeness
sake, control his features and forbear from laughing whilst the

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abbess gravely relates that, when the high priest found fault
with the Saviour for not silencing the children in the Temple
crying "Hosanna," and He told them that if the little ones held
their peace the stones would cry out, this miracle really
happened. The stone here shewn, "burst into a melodious
'Hosanna' as soon as the children were silent." Another stone,
"which would have cried out," is to be seen in another part
of the city, in a side-lane opening into the Via Dolorosa. It is
quite black and greasy with the kisses of pilgrims.

We retrace our steps and leave the great convent of St.
James by its western portal, which opens into a large clear
square (illustrations 9 and 10), over-shadowed by some of the

(8) Gongs in the Porch of the Church.

ancient and magnificent pine-trees of the gardens of Herod's
palace.

Turning northward we follow the first lane to the right (il-
lustration n). After passing the ruin of the mediaeval Syrian
Church ol St. Thomas, a tortuous route, leading in a general
direction N.E., brings us first to the Syrian convent, recently
rebuilt, because of the damage it sustained as a result of the
severe earthquake a couple of years ago.

This convent is believed to stand on the site of the house of
Mary the mother of Mark (Acts xii. i, 15). The church or chapel
is mediaeval, resembling in plan that of St. James the son of

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Alphaeus, close to Christ Church, and that of "the prison of
Christ" in the traditional "house of Caiaphas," just outside the
Ziori Gate. With it are connected a number of traditionary
relics, such as a picture of the Virgin Mary, painted by St. Luke,
the font in which the Virgin was baptized, and the door at which
St. Peter knocked after the angel had delivered him from prison.
It is pitiful to see how pilgrims believe that all these things
are genuine. Just opposite the entrance to this convent (the
only one belonging to the Jacobite Syrians in Jerusalem), are
the old houses which used to be occupied by the L. J. S. Hos-
pital, before it was removed to its magnificent new quarters
outside the town. One of these buildings is still used for the

(9) Square in Front of Armenian Convent of St. James.

town dispensary and the dispenser's dwelling. It is situated
at the very entrance to the old Jewish quarter which we will
next visit.

Before doing so, however, it may be as well to remark that
the part of the town which we have been passing through, now
occupied by the Citadel, Christ Church compound, the Armenian
and Syrian convents, the old hospital premises and Mr. Nico-
layson's house (now tenanted by Jews), the Jewish "Bikur
Holim" Hospital, and the present Maronite convent, in our
Lord's time was covered by the fortified residence of Herod the
Great, as already related. After the destruction of Jerusalem
by Titus (A.D. 70), it became the fortified camp of the loth

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Roman legion which was left by the conqueror to guard the
ruins. It occupied the fairly level summit of the S.W. hill,
which is generally known as the traditional Zion. The long
and fairly straight street called on the Ordnance Survey Plan
of Jerusalem, "Harat al Jawany" and "Tarik Bab Neby Baud,"
and running southwards, at not quite a right angle, to "Su-
weikut Allun" and "Suk al Bizar," which form the western part
of "David Street," may be considered as marking the Eastern
boundary within the present wall of the legionary camp which
extended southward some distance beyond the present city
walls and included the site of the traditionary Ccenaculum, the
present Neby Baud.

(10) Entrance to the Convent of St. James.

From the Harat al Jawany and the Tarik Bab Neby Baud
(which form the westernmost of the three fairly parallel streets
that running southward, and intersected by various smaller lanes
and alleys, constitute the present Jewish quarter), the descent is
steep to the middle street; called the "Harat al Yahud." The
surface-levels shown on the Ordnance Survey Plan (1864 — 5) in
this part of the city make it clear that the old Jewish quarter, or
Ghetto, which reaches eastward as far as the brink of the preci-
pices over-hanging the Tyropoeon Valley, is built on the lower

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eastern slope or terrace of the hill. The third and easternmost
of the three parallel streets running through this district, is called,
together with a side-street opening into it from the west, "Harat
al Meidan," that is, "Theatre Street."

The next illustration (12) gives a view in "Harat al Meidan."
The house to the right occupies part of the site of another
church of St. Thomas of the Crusading period. Till a couple of
years back, a large stone in the open space in the foreground

(n) Ruin of the Syrian Church of St. Thomas.

used to mark the spot pointed out by tradition, as that where
there had been an entrance to underground passages communi-
cating with Neby Daud, the traditional Tomb of David, outside
the Zion Gate. (See "A Miraculous Deliverance," pp. 100 — 102,
in "Tales told in Palestine.) The stone has now disappeared.

"Theatre Street" is a most significant name and very valuable,

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as it perpetuates the memory and points to the situation of the
Roman theatre, of which, as I was informed by the late Dr.
Merrill, remains were discovered a few years ago, at the time I
was stationed at Jaffa, and, therefore, I had not the opportunity
of seeing. They were situated just outside the city, a little S.E.
of the great tower called "Burj al Kibryt" at the semi-circular
recess shewn on the Ordnance Survey between the levels
marked respectively B.M. 2376.2 and 2.322. Through the Harat
al Meidan, then, we may, without any great stretch of fancy, be
justified in imagining the pagan population of pre-Hadrianic
Roman Jerusalem, and later on that of Aelia Capitolina coming,
the legionaries from the west, and the traders and others with
their families from the north, to behold the gladiatorial and other
exhibitions, perhaps the death of Christian martyrs in the theatre.

(12) View in Harat al Meidan (Theatre Street).

CHAPTER IV.

the Crusading period the Harat al Meidan
was the quarter allotted to the Germans. The great
Convent of the Teutonic Knights and another
Church of St. Thomas, were situated here, whilst
the Church of St. Martin, with the various build-
ings therewith connected, stood where the Khurveh,

or synagogue, and school of the Ashkenazi Perushim now stand.

(Illustration 13).

(13) Perushim Synagogue.

In New Testament times the palace of Herod Agrippa stood
somewhere on the line of the Harat al Meidan, on the edge of
the cliffs overlooking the Xystus and the Temple-courts, and not
far south of the point where the present Harat al Meidan opens
into the "Tarik Bab es Silsileh," as the eastern part of David's
Street is now called (Josephus, Wars. Bk. ii. ch. 16 § 3). The

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palace of the high priest probably stood at some distance to the
S.W., perhaps somewhere not far from "where the great syna-
gogue of the Chassidim now stands. Illustration 14 gives a
view of the exterior taken from a house-top in Der Deutsche
Platz, shewing the entrance to the right from the Harat al
Meidan. The other illustration (15) shews the interior of this
synagogue.

The Jewish population of Jerusalem is of a comparatively
modern date. The soldiers of the first Crusade massacred every
Jew or Jewess they could find in the Holy City, and as their suc-
cessors barely tolerated the presence of Jews in Jerusalem, there

(14) Great Synagogue of the Chassidim.

was little that would encourage the latter to settle there. When
Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited Jerusalem he found only 200
Jews there. That was about A.D. 1130. The successes of the
Moslem arms, combined with the brutal treatment which was
experienced by the Jews in England and France, were the cause
of a fresh immigration of the sons of Israel into the Holy Land,
and accordingly, about the year 1200, we find that some 300
rabbis came from France and England to settle at Jerusalem.
About twenty years later the celebrated Rabbi Nachmanides was
successful in making a collection and purchasing from the Mos-
lems the above-mentioned Crusading Church of St. Martin, which
was a handsome building with many columns and a dome. After
some repairs it became the Jewish synagogue. In 1493, just after
the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, many of the exiles came

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and settled in Jerusalem. After various trying experiences, those
of the Ashkenazim rite were obliged to flee, the Moslems con-
fiscating the synagogue.

It was probably some time after this that the Sephardim who
had hitherto worshipped at the Khurveh with the Ashkenazim,
and appear somehow always to have managed better than did
their brethren from Germany and Eastern Europe to get on
with their Mohammedan neighbours, acquired and erected the
curious group of synagogues connected with each other and
built almost underground. These are still used by them and sit-

(15) Great Synagogue of the Chassidim.

uated in the elbow of the crooked street leading from Harat al
Yahud to Harat al Meidan. The oldest of them is a small dark
perfectly subterranean apartment called "the synagogue of
Elijah," from the legend that some centuries ago, in the time
of persecution, when the handful of Jews who lived in the Holy
City were in great fear and danger, and could therefore only
meet in secret for the purposes of public devotion, it happened
one Sabbath day that the service could not be held because
there were only nine Jews present, and a tenth could not be
found in order to form a minyan or congregation of ten. At

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this juncture a venerable Jewish stranger, who had never been
seen before by any of those assembled, and suddenly disap-
peared as soon as the service was ended, entered the synagogue
and joined the congregation which, as it had now reached the
minimum number needed to form a devotional quorum, pro-
ceeded with the service. The unknown stranger was the prophet
Elijah, who is believed to be the guardian saint of Israel,
appearing suddenly from time to time to avert danger from the
chosen race and to prevent or punish wrong.

The ancient and curious underground synagogue of the
Karaites is also worth visiting. It is exactly opposite to the
great Chassidim synagogue (illustrations 14 and 15). To return,

(16) Der Deutsche Platz.

however, to our historical notes. The Ashkenazim did not
return to Jerusalem till 1690, when Rabbi Jehudah Chassid
came with a large following of Ashkenazi rabbis and others, and
they re-purchased the old synagogue buildings. Thirty years
later, however, the Ashkenazim were again driven away, and the
said buildings once again seized by the Moslems; nor was it
till after the Egyptian occupation of Palestine, in 1831, that the
Ashkenazim were allowed to settle again in Jerusalem, and re-
ceived back the ruined "Khurveh," which was restored and re-
opened for public worship after having been closed for 116 years,
two months and three weeks. Fiorty years ago there was a large
tract of waste ground to the south of the Jewish quarter, and
situated between it and the southern city-wall. Of late years,

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however, a great part of this tract has been built over by
German Jews, and it is now known as "der Deutsche Platz"
(illustration 16). In order to annoy the Christians the Moham-
medans centuries ago opened a tannery close to the Church of
the Sepulchre; and in like manner, and to vex the Jews, they
placed the shambles at the southern entrance to the Jewish quar-
ter. Both these nuisances still existed when I was a child, but
were removed after the close of the Crimean war, as a result of
pressure brought to bear upon the local authorities by the dif-
ferent Consulates, at the representation of Dr. Macgowan who,

(17) The Zion Gate.

with his assistants, Drs. Sims and Atkinson, all three of whom
the writer knew, were the only European medical men in southern
Palestine, and had great influence. The memories, however,
of both these nuisances, tannery and shambles, are perpetuated
by the name El Dabbaghah, the tannery by which the site of the
Knights of St. John's Hospital and churches is known ; and that
of Harat al Maslah, or Shambles Street, which still clings to

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the southern part of Harat al Yahud. At the southern end of
this street and the Harat Neby Daud, and between them and the
Zion Gate, there was an open space partly occupied by the leper
village. This was removed many years ago. The place then
became the weekly cattle-market, and now that the market is
held in the Birket es Sultan, new bazaars for the use of butchers,
have been completed on the spot.

(18) Shops by the Zion Gate.

The first view of the Zion Gate (17) is from the outside; the
second (18) is taken from within the city walls, showing the row
of these new shops or bazaars recently erected for the sale of
"kosher" meat, on the site, as stated, of the old cattle-market and
leper village of 25 years ago.

CHAPTER V.

E greater part of the space included within the
north-western corner of the city walls, and reaching
as far south as the great thoroughfare leading from
the Jaffa Gate eastwards toward the Temple-area,
was sixty years ago unencumbered by buildings,
and comprised open enclosures or fields, which in
winter and spring were sown with grain and in summer lay bare.
It was the prowling ground of dogs that flocked thither to fight
over the dead carcasses of asses and horses, left there to rot and
breed pestilence. So serious did the nuisance become that at

(19) Fragment of Roman Tile.

last the French Consul, his various colleagues, and the one or
two European medical men then in Jerusalem, were obliged to
protest to the Governor, who ordered reforms. Since then stu-
dents of Scripture have often had an opportunity of witnessing
the scene described in Jer. xxii. 19 — "The burial of an ass, drawn
and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem."

Buildings have now risen to fill up this void. Just facing
the northern wall of the Castle is the Grand New Hotel, the

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foundations of which were laid in 1885. It is interesting because
of the discovery during those excavations of a fragment of what,
in our Lord's time, was the second wall enclosing Jerusalem on
the north, outside which was the spot where He was crucified.
Here also Roman tiles of the tenth legion were found (illustration
19) and part of the shaft of a column (illustration 20) bearing a
native inscription in honour of the Augustan legate, Marcus

(20) Ancient Roman Column and Street Lamp.

Junius Maximus. The monument was erected by the tenth
legion, and in particular by Caius Domitius Sergius Julius
Honoratus. who was the legate's strator or equerry. We give a
fragment of one of these ancient tiles bearing the stamp of the
tenth legion, "(Eu) fretensis," photographed to a scale of centi-
metres (5 cent.=2 inches).

The piece of column with the inscription now forms the ped-
estal of a street lamp-stand (illustration 20), and has been fixed

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close to the spot where it was originally found. Its discovery
here is of peculiar interest, because we are expressly told by
Josephus (Wars vii. i, 3) that, when Jerusalem was taken, A.D.
70, Titus left the tenth legion as a garrison amongst the ruins,
instead of sending them again to their former station in the
Kuphrates valley. The position of their new camp may be
determined from the statements of Josephus, who says that
Titus left a part of the west wall standing, that it might serve
as a protection to the garrison. He also left the three great
towers of Hippicus, Phasael and Mariamne, probably for the use
of the garrison, though the Jewish historian suggests that it was

(21) View from Site of the Asmonaeans' House.

with a view of impressing future ages with the strength of the
city which he had conquered.

It is just at this point that the recovered inscription comes
in to verify Josephus' statement about the camp of the tenth
legion inside the city. The place where the broken column
was dug up, and where the Grand New Hotel now stands, is just
inside the west wall, and on one side close to the Tower of
David, which is probably formed by part of the ancient Phasa-
elus, with which its plan-dimensions agree. On the other side
it is as near to the great tower south of the Jaffa Gate, standing,
in all probability, on the site of Hippicus.

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There is a good view (illustration 21) from the roof of one
of the buildings on the site of the house of the Asmonaeans
(Josephus, Wars, Bk. II. chap. 16 § 3). This shews the Wail-
ing Place; the Mahkameh (on the site of Sanhedrin Council
Chamber); the minaret built over the modern Gate "Bab es Sil-
sileh," which stands on the site of the ancient Temple-gate,
"Shallecheth" or "Coponius"; the Dome of the Rock and
part of surrounding courts. In the background, is the northern
summit of Olivet, called "Viri Galilei," from a worthless tra-
dition not traceable further back than Crusading times, that it
was here that the angels said to the disciples, gazing heaven-
wards at the Ascension, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye

(22) Church of St. Salvator.

gazing up into heaven." Another tale, equally valueless, is that
this spot was "the mountain in Galilee," where the disciples
were to meet Christ after His Resurrection. The buildings
now crowning the hill belong to the Greek Convent. The spot
is, however, interesting for two good reasons. (i). It was
here that the tenth Roman legion encamped at the commence-
ment of the siege of Jerusalem (A.D. 70). Roman tiles, bearing
the legionary stamp, LEG. X FR., and, in some cases &.lso
the 'sketch of a nog or of a galley, sometimes both, have
been dug up here. (2). A remarkable catacomb of early Chris-
tian times has been discovered here.

To the north of, and behind, the Grand New Hotel are the
new substantial buildings of the Greek Hospital, and the Greek

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College just facing it on the eastern side of the street leading to
the Franciscan Casa Nuova, and their lately rebuilt Church and
Monastery of St. Salvator. We give three views of this fine

(23) Church of St. Salvator.

building (illustrations 22, 23 and 26). 22 is a general view,
23 is taken from the roof of the Grand New Hotel, and illus-
tration 26 shows the Convent and Church within the city wall
to the left, and the Augustinian Assumptionist Convent to the

(24) Church of Notre Dame de France.
29

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right. To this corporation belong the Church and Hospice of
Notre Dame de France (illustration 24), which was described in
"Jerusalem Notes" in "Jewish Missionary Intelligence," 1905,
p. 28. To the west of these are the great piles of the Latin
Patriarchate Church and clergy-house, and the great French
boys' school, superintended by the "Christian Brothers."

The view of the Latin Church, including the interior of the
western city wall, is taken from the roof of the Grand New
Hotel. The great buildings are so surrounded by others that
only distant views are procurable (illustration 25).

The re-establishment of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

(25) Latin Patriarchate Church.

dates back to the middle of last century. Beside him there is a
Greek, an Armenian, and a Syrian Patriarch, and no end of
archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries (many
of them merely titular), of various old historic churches and
sects.

Jerusalem may be considered from many points of view. It
certainly is, in one aspect, a museum of fossilized forms of
religious profession. During the period between the final
expulsion of the Crusaders from Jerusalem (A.D. 1243) and the
re-establishment of the Latin Patriarchate, the interests of the
Roman Church in Jerusalem and the East were represented by
the Franciscan, Minorite or Cordelier monks, whose brown habit
and rope-girdle may be met with everywhere. The founder of
this order himself visited the Holy Land and Egypt A.D. 1219,

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and obtained from the Fatimite Sultan permission for the
members of the Brotherhood to remain in the Holy Land, for
the entertainment of European pilgrims and the care of the so-
called holy sites. Since then, according to the Franciscan publi-
cation "The Crusader's Almanac for 1906," during the course of
centuries more than 4,000 Franciscans have offered up their
blood in the service of Christ, and more than 2,000 in the office
of ministering to lepers. Though, of course, this statement
should be taken "cum grano salis," yet, when one reads old
books of Eastern pilgrimage and travel, truth obliges one to con-
fess that this Brotherhood was very useful to travellers in
bye-gone centuries, when Eastern travel was dangerous and
difficult and there were no hotels whatever. At present, the

(26) Church of St. Salvator.

order has, according to the almanac above-mentioned, convents
and "sanctuaries" at Jerusalem, Bethlehem, .Ain Karim, Emmaus,
Ramleh, Nazareth, and Capernaum; at Jaffa on the coast, as well
as in the Galilean place of the same name; at Nain, Mt. Tabor,
Cana, Sepphoris, and Tiberias. In the service of their "mis-
sions" in the East the Franciscans have 218 priests, 44 clerics,
and 245 lay-brothers. According to latest statistics 2,141 European
and American Roman Catholic pilgrims received hospitality
at various Latin Convents in Palestine during the year 1904.

The Franciscan Convent of St. Salvator above mentioned was
first occupied by the fraternity during the latter part of the six-
Si

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teenth century, after their expulsion from the Ccenaculum in 1560.
St. Salvator, recently re-built, probably occupies the site of the
famous Iberian monastery erected by King Vachtung in the
fourth century (A.D. 446 — 499), and afterwards repaired by
Justinian. Beside the church and cells for the monks it con-
tains a steam-press, an excellent library, and several large work-
shops. It has boys' and girls' schools and a free dispensary.

To the south of the great Franciscan establishment, and
adjoining it is the great Greek Convent of Constantine (illus-
tration 27), where the orthodox Greek Patriarch resides. This
monastery is said to have been originally the Palace of the
Crusading Kings of Jerusalem. After the year 1118, on the
institutior of the Order of Knights Templars, the buildings
adjoining the Aksa Mosque, which till then had been occupied

(27) Greek Convent and Domes of the Holy Sepulchre.

by royalty, were given up for the use of these military monks.
The convent itself is a huge straggling building, extending
southwards as far as the crooked street leading eastward from
Grand New Hotel; and reaching eastward beyond Christian
Street and right up to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It
contains a magnificent library, including most valuable books
and MSS. from the libraries at Mar Saba and the Convent
of the Cross, which were incorporated with it about twenty years
ago. There are over 100 ancient Greek MSS. on vellum, a large
folio MS. of the whole Bible in excellent preservation, a folio
copy of the Book of Job, written in large letters, with notes in a
smaller hand, and having on almost every page i2th century

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miniatures of Job and his three friends. It is a great treasure.
The convent contains besides several small chapels, a printing
press, schools, etc. There are about 200 monks and priests
in residence, and many apartments for pilgrims. This is only
one of several Greek monasteries in Jerusalem.

In the angle formed by the great street leading eastward
from the Jaffa Gate, and that leading northward, as above de-
scribed, past the Grand New Hotel toward the Casa Nuova, we
note a nunnery of the Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph,
a Coptic Convent of St. George, a Greek nunnery, and, besides
other buildings, the Great Coptic Khan or caravanserai, built

(28) The Pool of Hezekiah.

during the early part of last century (1838) inside the northern
part of the great pool — Birket Hammam al Batrak ("Pool of the
Patriarch's Bath.") This is called by tradition the Pool of
Hezekiah, but was in ancient times the Pool Amygdalon, or the
"Almond Pool," and situated, as we read in Josephus (Wars.
Bk. V. xi. 4), close to the spot where the soldiers of the tenth
legion were, during the siege of the city, carrying on military
operations against the second wall.

Some remains of this wall were, as above related, discovered

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in 1885, just west of this pool. The reservoir is now 240 feet
long and 144 feet wide, but it was ascertained in 1838, whenr
as already remarked, the Coptic khan was built inside its northern
end, that it was originally 57 feet longer than it is at present.
As the pool was inside the second wall, which ran encircling
the north part of Jerusalem as far as the Castle of Antonia,
which was situated at the N.W. of the Temple-area; and as
our Lord was crucified outside this second wall, it is very
difficult to believe that the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre
could have been outside this second wall. However, this is a
question about which over a score of learned works (each as
dry as dust) have been written, and with which I shall not
bewilder the reader.

Illustration 28 shows the so-called Pool of Hezekiah, with a
Coptic Khan to the left, and, in the background, the domes of
the Church of the Resurrection, popularly known as that of the
Holy Sepulchre. To the foregoing I will only add that the
name "Pool of Hezekiah," is given to this great artificial basin,
because it is traditionally identified with the one made by that
king, of whom the Bible and Apocrypha relate (2 Kings, xx.
20; 2 Chron. xxxii. 30; Sirach. xlviii. 17) that he "made a pool,
and a conduit, and brought water into the city," and also that
he stopped the upper water-course of Gihon, and brought it
straight down to the west side of the city of David. Several
modern scholars, have, indeed, of late years tried to prove that
the pool and conduit were in Siloam, in a quite different part
of Jerusalem. On the other hand, others still adhere to the
idea that the traditional view is the correct one, and that the
aqueduct which, till the last few years fed the pool with water
from another outside and west of the city, was the "conduit"
referred to in the Scripture passages quoted above.

CHAPTER VI.

HE level of the ground inside the walls of the Holy
City varies as greatly as it does outside. The
highest point, just inside the north-western angle,
where the new gateway, "Bab es Sultan Abdul Hamid"
(illustration 29) was opened twenty-three years ago,
is 2,580 feet above the Mediterranean. The lowest
in the corner east of the Dung Gate and south-east of the city
(not to be confounded with the south-east corner of the Temple

(29) The New Gate— Bab es Sultan Abdul Hamid.

area), is quite, as the contour lines on the plan of the city show,
two hundred feet lower. From the north-western .angle the
ground falls steadily eastward and southward. At the Jaffa Gate

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the Ordnance Survey Bench-mark, /|\ cut in 1864 on the city
walls, shows the level to be 2,528 feet at that particular spot.
Passing southward the ground rises twenty feet at Christ Church
and in the Armenian quarter. It falls again, as we move eastward,

(30) A Plan of Jerusalem.
36

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to 2,450 on the verge of the great cliffs at the eastern edge of
the Jewish quarter, and overhanging the low ground of the
Tyropceon valley, at the Jews' Wailing Place, the Mohammedan
Mughrabi (North African) quarter, and the neighbourhood of the
Dung Gate ("Bab al Magharibeh.")

Returning to the New Gate, we observe that the large French
boys' school in the angle of the city wall, south-west of it, is
built on the site of a ruined Crusading fort called "Kala, 'at
El Jalud," i.e., "Goliath's Castle," sometimes also "Tancred's
Tower." Some of the remains of these old middle-age fortifi-
cations are shown to inquisitive visitors or pilgrims. They are
preserved in the cellars of the school, and do duty, as a placard

•i

(31) Model of Original Rock Site of Calvary.

on the spot shows, for the remains of Herod's great tower of
Psephinus. The contour-line, passing respectively the N.W.
corner of the city, the Damascus Gate, the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, and Bishop Gobat's school to the south-west of the
town, bears the number 2,479, showing that these points are
approximately at the same level, and one hundred feet lower
than the New Gate. Hezekiah's Pool (Birket Hammam el Batrak)
S.W. of the Church of the Sepulchre, occupies the head of a
deep and broad depression, or valley basin, which is 800 feet
wide at its mouth, and sweeps eastward, ever deepening till it
joins another valley coming from the neighbourhood of the
Damascus Gate, and is usually called "El Wad," or the
Tyropceon.

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These two united valleys continue southward and eastward
after having passed beyond the city's southern limit, and at
last open into the Kedron, or Valley of Jehoshaphat, at the
lower pool of Siloam, a little north of the place where the
Wad-el-Rababi, the traditional Valley of Hinnom, comes sweep-
ing from the west and south of the high land on which the town
stands. It opens into the Kedron at a spot marked on the
Ordnance Survey by a bench-mark cut into a rock-scarp, as
being 2,035 feet above sea-level, or exactly 555 feet lower than
the level at the New Gate.

Another valley, the head of which is indicated by the bend
of the contour-line 2,479 between the Mohammedan cemetery

(32) Ground Model of Church of the H6ly Sepulchre.

to the north of the city (Gordon's Calvary) and the N.E. angle
of the city wall, descends in a south-easterly direction, crossing
the Haram, or Temple-area at its N.E. corner, about halfway be-
tween the St. Stephen's and the Golden Gates, and opening into
the Kedron opposite the traditional Gethsemane. This valley,
however, is now so filled up with debris that it is only discern-
ible from certain points, such as the high ground on Bezetha,
just inside Herod's Gate. In its bed lie the mysterious double
Pools of Bethesda, close to the Church of St. Anne, and the
huge Birket Israel, now being purposely filled up with rubbish
but which, before the re-discovery of the double Pools just
mentioned, used to be pointed out as the Pool of Bethesda.

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In the preceding remarks I have tried to make it clear that
the unequal heights of the ground inside the walls of the Holy
City are produced by the presence of three valleys that intersect
the mountain-site. First, there is a broad depression running
eastward from Hezekiah's Pool; next, a great ravine running
from the Damascus Gate to the S.E. corner of the city, just east
of the Dung Gate ; and in the . third place, the valley running

(33) The German Church.

from between Gordon's Calvary, the N.E. angle through Beth-
esda and the N.fc. portion of the Temple-area.

Between this valley and that coming from the Damascus
Gate lies a great long hill slope or ridge, the top of which
steadily descends towards the S.E. The Ordnance Survey has
determined its highest point, just opposite the Mohammedan
cemetery, to be 2,524 feet above sea-level. At the N.W. corner

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

of the present Turkish barracks, on the site of the Antonia, it
is 2,448. Inside the N.W. angle of the Temple-area it has fallen
to 2,429, to rise again on the summit of Moriah (which the levels
show to be connected by a narrow neck or saddle with Bezetha)
to 2,440, and then gradually to descend again till, on the verge of
the great precipice overhanging the Pool of Siloam, at the
southern end of the Ophel spur outside the city, it is 2,129, or
almost four hundred feet below its highest point. Between
the Damascus Gate valley and that starting from Hezekiah's
Pool is the hill called Acra, covered on its higher levels, as we
have seen, with large modern buildings. Its highest point within
the walls, as already mentioned,, is at the N.W. angle of the city
close to the New Gate.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is situated on its south-
eastern slope, but fully one hundred feet lower than the New
Gate. Joined to Acra by the neck or saddle on which the Jaffa
Gate stands, and to the south of the Pool of Hezekiah valley,
is the traditional Zion, occupied, as we have seen, by the Cita-
del, the L. J. S. mission premises, and the Armenian convent,
and, on its lower and eastern terraces, by the Jewish quarter.

The plan of the city (illustration 30) — reduced by photo-
graphy from a large one kindly given me by Dr. Merrill — shows
the present city walls. I have marked the course the second
wall must have taken if the Church of the Sepulchre really
and truly marks the actual spot of Golgotha and our Lord's
tomb which were outside the wall. The outer dotted line shews
the course of the second wall as described by Josephus, in-
cluding the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The
minute numbers on the series of contour-lines show the height
above the Mediterranean in English feet. The letters refer
to the following: — A., Armenian quarter. B., Jewish quarter.
C.C., Latin and Greek, etc. D., Moslem (North African). E.,
general Moslem quarter, on Bezetha. X., Grand New Hotel.

Having thus tried to describe the general line and respective
elevations of the different parts of Jerusalem within the walls,
we shall now start on our projected visit to the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre. The writer's object, as already stated, is
not to uphold or promulgate any theory. In a former chapter
I alluded to the difficulties of the theory that the Church
marks the actual site of the crucifixion and resurrection of the
Saviour. I now, in justice to those who maintain the contrary,
give views of two models (illustrations 31 and 32) made from the

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

drawings and notes of the late Dr. Schick. The former shews
the nature or appearance of the rock site, as it must have
presented in our Lord's time. Namely, i. Calvary. 2. The
Sepulchre. 3. Traditional sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus. 4. Quarries. 5. A slight valley. 6. Tomb of
Adam. The other (32) is a photograph of a model made from
Dr. Schick's drawings, to show the alterations that have taken
place, as a result of the cutting away of the rock in order to
receive the foundations of present buildings — i. Calvary. 2.
The Sepulchre. 3. Tomb of Joseph and Nicodemus. 4. Chapel
of St. Helena. 5. Cathedral of the Greeks. 6. Chapel with tra-
ditional tomb of Adam.

Whether the reader accepts or doubts the genuineness of
the site of the famous Church as being that where, in our Lord's
time, Calvary was situated and the garden of Joseph of Ari-
mathea, no one will deny that the place has a marvellous his-
tory, reaching back fifteen and three-quarter centuries. Here,
between the years A.D. 327—336, the Emperor Constantine the
Great erected his fine buildings. On the west is a great Rotunda,
the circular Church of the Anastasis or Resurrection, with what
was really believed to be the Holy Sepulchre in its centre.
Further east, is a large open court with colonnades running along
its northern and southern sides. Further east still, is a handsome
and spacious basilica or cathedral, built on a plan resembling
that of Roman law courts, i.e., with a great central nave and
side aisles, the roofs of which were supported by columns, and
having at the east end three deep apses or semi-circular recesses.
Easternmost of all, and with a grand pillared entrance from the
street, now called Khan Ez-Zeit, is an atrium or great square
court, with colonnades running along all its four sides.

The area covered by these structures is'stated by Dr. Schick
to have extended 500 feet east and west from the Khan Ez-Zeit
to Christian Street, and from the present Via Dolorosa north to
the street now running along the south side of the Church of the
Sepulchre block, or about 200 feet — the area covered being more
than 10,000 square yards. A few vestiges of Constantine's grand
edifices may still be seen in the Russian Hospice east of the
Church of the Sepulchre, consisting of two of the pedestals of
the entrance porch, and a fragment of a massive wall.

Other interesting remains on this spot are of later periods —
Byzantine and Crusading. The buildings having been destroyed
by the army of Chosroes II. of Persia in A.D. 614, a new set of

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

edifices, on a much smaller scale, was erected between the
years 616 — 626 by the Abbot Modestus, who received pecuniary
help from the Christians in Syria and Egypt, and used such of
the old materials as were available. As a result, four separate
buildings were raised; viz., the Church of the Resurrection, or
the Rotunda; the Church of the Cross, situated over the site
of the present Chapel of St. Helena; the Church of Calvary,
on the present site; and the Church of the Virgin, which prob-
ably stood on the spot now occupied by the great bell-tower
and the south transept. When, in A.D. 637 Jerusalem opened
its gates to the Khalifeh Omar ibn El Khatlab, the Moslem con-
queror generously left the Christians in peaceable possession
of their churches. Later on, when Haroun Al Raschid, of
Arabian Nights' celebrity, came to the throne, among the presents
he sent to his equally famous contemporary Charlemagne (A.D.
800) were the keys of the Church of the Sepulchre.

Charlemagne took advantage of the favourable political rela-
tions between himself and the Oriental ruler, in order to establish
a hospice on a site S.E. of the church. A church, that of St.
Mary of the Latins, was afterwards erected here, and when,,
long after the Crusading period, it had gradually fallen into ruin,
the site and remains were in 1869 presented to the King of
Prussia, and taken possession of by his son, afterwards the
Emperor Frederick, whose son, the present Kaiser William, had
the church rebuilt on the old lines. It was consecrated on the
occasion of his visit to Jerusalem in 1898, and, under the name
of the "Erloser Kirche," is the place of worship of the German
Protestants (illustration 33).

The churches on the site of the Church of the Sepulchrer
having suffered dilapidation from various causes, and on two
occasions from fire, were again repaired in the years 830 and
969. Having been quite destroyed in 1010 by the orders of the
mad Egyptian Khalif El Hakim, whom the Druses to this day
worship as a god, they were rebuilt as separate chapels on the
various holy sites. After the Crusaders had obtained pos-
session of the country in 1099, they erected the present building,
which includes the shrines which till their coming had been
shown under different roofs. It was in this church that several
of the Latin Kings were crowned, and here, around the so-called
stone of unction, their tombs were preserved, till in 1224, the
Kharezmians, a fierce Tartar horde, having over-run Palestine
and taken Jerusalem, destroyed the monuments and rifled the
graves, in hope of finding treasure.

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Though at that time and subsequently, the last occasion
being the great fire of 1808, which destroyed the Chapel of
the Resurrection and the great dome over the Rotunda, the
inner arrangements of the Church of the Sepulchre have ex-
perienced various vicissitudes and alterations, yet, on the whole,
the outer shell and walls of the building remain practically,
except for the wear and tear of eight centuries, much the same
as they were when the Crusaders were turned out of Jerusalem
in 1187.

(34) Stairs leading from Christian Street

to the Courtyard of the Church

of the Holy Sepulchre.

CHAPTER VII.

HE present iron dome and galleries over the ro-
tunda in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were
put up in 1868, the work being done with the
consent of the Sultan and at the joint expense
of France and Russia, which countries sent archi-
tects and workmen.

The only approach to the church is by the great courtyard
in front and south of it. The church may be entered either from
a door at its S.E., or by another at the top of a staircase at
its S.W. corner. We will visit it from the latter direction,
starting from the great open space to the east of the Citadel.
At the N.E. corner of this space is the head of a long street
of stairs leading down eastwards to the Temple-area, 500 yards
distant and 106 feet below us. We begin to descend this street,
and, having proceeded about 200 feet, turn sharply to the left,
following a straight and level street leading northwards. It is
now called Christian Street, because, till about twenty years ago,
the shops on either side were occupied solely by Christians,
no Jew daring to show himself in the vicinity of the Church of
the ^Sepulchre. Now all this is changed, most if not all the
shops being occupied by Jews. In Crusading times this was
called Patriarch Street, because it led to the residence of the
Patriarch, at the corner where it joins the Via Dolorosa, where
the present mosque and minaret El Khankeh are situated. The
old mediaeval name is still perpetuated in that of Hammam El
Batrak "Patriarch's Baths," the Turkish bath of that name, on
the right of the street being supplied with water from the Pool
of Hezekiah.

A curious Jewish legend is connected with this bath. It is
said that, over a century ago, Chacham Saleem esh Shelebi,
who was then the Rishon le Zion, or head of the Jewish com-
munity in Jerusalem, was told by his servant that the quantity
of water needed to satisfy the rabbinical regulations at this
bath was insufficient, and that unless more water was supplied
no Jews would bathe that day. The rabbi happened to be at
his prayers, and was wearing both tallith and phylacteries when
he was told this, and, forgetting to take them off, he at once

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went to the bath. As he approached the place a fanatical young
Moslem noticed that the tallith had in its pattern a stripe of
green, a colour which none but a Moslem was at that time
allowed to wear. He at once drew his dagger to kill the Jew,
who, as he thought, was insulting Islam. Before, however, he
could strike the unconscious rabbi, his arm and his whole body
were paralysed, and he stood rooted to the spot, a rigid statue.
The attention of the rabbi being drawn, as he was leaving the
bath, to the would-be assassin, he consented, after many solici-
tations, to pray for his recovery, but on the condition that no
Jew should again be molested in the Holy City. These terms

(35) Chapel of the Twelve Apostles.

being agreed to, he uttered a short prayer, and by a command
restored to his assailant his powers of life, speech and move-
ment. (See "Tales told in Palestine," p. 95.)

Christian Street is remarkably straight, and for the first half
of its course, level, the reason being that in that part it passes
along the top of a huge, and very ancient, dam or causeway,
which forms the eastern limit of the Pool of Hezekiah. The
western side of the dam-top has houses built along it, and that
is the reason why this remarkable specimen of ancient engi-
neering, which is about 200 feet long and 50 wide, escapes
notice.

We now take the first turning to the right and descend a.
winding street of stairs, at the foot of which is the great court

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in front of the Church of the Sepulchre. On the left hand side,
in line with the lowest step of the staircase (illustration 34) is
the S.E. corner of the great Greek Convent of Constantine, and
just here we notice an old pilaster with a beautiful i2th century
basket work capital, and the spring of an arch rising from its
abacus. In line with this pilaster we notice, stretching east-
ward, the broken bases of columns. These remains are the

(36 Porch of the Chapel with Walled-up Olive Tree.

only existing vestiges of the beautiful arcade which stood along
the northern front of the great Hospital of the Knights of St.
John. There was at the time another approach to the courtyard
from the west, and it is related that on one occasion, when there
was a dispute between the Latin patriarch and the Hospitalers,
who claimed to be independent of his authority, the military
monks, knowing that the church dignitary and his clergy were
about to visit the Church of the Sepulchre in solemn pomp
and order of rank, ranged up under this arcade and received the
train with nights of arrows (blunt ones we hope). This obliged

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those in the .procession to run away as fast as they could, re-
linquishing every attempt at dignity, into the shelter of the
church, amidst the derisive shouts of laughter raised by the
Knights. "As are the times, so are the manners." "Every age,"
says ,the corresponding Arabic proverb, "sports with its own
generation." In those days the games seem to have been rather
rough.

The courtyard in front of the church, which, during the pil-
grim-season is thronged by vendors of beads, crosses, etc., is

(37) Rival Olive Tree in Abyssinian Convent.

about 80 feet long and 54 wide. There are vaulted chambers
underneath it. It is bounded on its eastern side by the Greek
Convent of Abraham, which contains on its upper terrace the
small chapel of Abraham, where visitors are allowed to celebrate
the Lord's Supper by special permission of the Greek Patriarch;
the chapel of the twelve Apostles (illustration 35); and the care-
fully walled-up olive-tree (illustration 36). This tree, according to
a Greek legend, was the very plant amongst whose branches the
ram was found entangled by his horns at the time of Abraham's
offering of Isaac. The Abyssinians, however, protest against
this legend as rank heresy, and claim that they possess the veri-
table olive-tree in their own convent, a cluster of hovels amongst
the ruins of the Crusading Abbey of the Canons of the Sepulchre,

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east of the Great Church. Illustration 37 shews this rival olive-
tree in the courtyard of the Abyssinian Convent. In the back-
ground are seen part of the Church of the Sepulchre, and some
remains of the walled-up cloisters of the Crusading Abbey of
the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. In illustration 38 is another
view of the Abyssinian Convent, with the dome of the Chapel of
St. Helena in the foreground.

(38) Abyssinian Convent and Dome of St. Helena.

In the lower storey of the Convent of Abraham, with doors
opening into the court, are the Armenian Chapel of St. James,
and the Coptic Chapel of the Archangel Michael, whilst in the
N.E. corner of the court, underneath the Latin Chapel of Mary's
Agony, is the Greek Chapel of Mary the Egyptian. Who was
she? The Greek priest in charge of the shrine, a little room
scarcely twelve feet square, pitying our ignorance, points to a
series of coarsely executed pictures illustrating her story. Picture

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1. Mary, who has been leading a gay life in Egypt, embarks at
Alexandria in order to visit the Holy City in pilgrimage. Picture

2. An angel meeting her at the gate of Jerusalem forbids the
sinful woman to enter. Picture 3. Mary, the penitent, retires to
the desert to live a life of penance. Picture 4. Starving and
in rags, she was discovered by a holy hermit, who instructs her
in the truths of the Gospel. Picture 5. Being convinced of her
sincere repentance and piety, the hermit, whose name I forget,
gives Mary the Holy Communion. Picture 6. Coming^ one day

(39) Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with bell tower and
. cypress tree.

to visit his convert, the hermit finds that she had died since his
last visit. He is>just in time to say the funeral service, a god-
fearing lion having dug her grave, and is on the point of burying
Mary the Egyptian, when the saint comes up. The story is
characteristic, and typical .of many other such, and illustrative
of the doctrine held by so many Easterns and others that men
can be saved by their own works. It is remarkable that lions
play a part in several of these Oriental saint-stories.' " In paint-
ings St. Jerome is often represented accompanied by the lion
whose wounded paw the saint cured in the deserts of Chalcis,

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and who in gratitude became the healer's protector and faithful
servant" (see Prothero's 'The Psalms in Human Life," p. 27).
Mar Saba is allowed by a hospitable lion to share his den, and
when the couple find that the quarters are not roomy enough for
two, the lion generously seeks other lodgings. A lion, as we
have seen, buries Mary the Egyptian, and, about three-quarters

(40) Tomb of Sir Philip D'Aubeny.

of a mile west of the Jaffa Gate, the cave is still shewn to which
in 614 A.D., when the Persians had massacred 60,000 Christians
at Jerusalem, a lion reverently conveyed their bodies for burial.
It really seems a pity that such a, race of pious animals no
longer exists !

Built into the wall, just above the entrance to the Chapel of
Mary the Egyptian, is an old carving representing two lions.
It is much mutilated, and connected therewith is the legend
related on page no of "Tales told in Palestine."

On the west of the great court are ranged, side by side, the
three Greek Chapels of St. James, St. Mary, and the Forty Mar-
tyrs. The last-named is in the lower storey of the great bell-

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tower, which, together with the projecting exteriors of the apses
of the three chapels, is seen in illustration 39, between the dark
cypress-tree and the fagade of the Church of the Sepulchre,
the latter surmounted by the white-washed dome of the central
Greek Church of the middle of the world. In the N.E. corner
of the court, to the right of the blocked-up gangway, is seen the
Latin Chapel of Mary's Agony, roofed with a small drum and
dome, and with a staircase leading up to its door. The ques-
tion as to who had the right to sweep that staircase was the
cause of a sanguinary encounter between the Latin and Greek
monks some years ago.

Stretched in front of the cluster of columns, between the
two great portals of the Church of the Sepulchre, is a marble
slab, bearing the epitaph of Philip D'Aubeny, and a Norman
shield with his armorial bearings (illustration 40). A good many
years ago the writer succeeded, by reference to ancient records,
in proving that this is the tombstone of Sir Philip D'Aubeny,
tutor of Henry III. of Winchester, who, crowned when only
a child of eight years of age, was entrusted to his care during
the protectorship of the able Earl of Pembroke. Before the
accession of Henry III., however, and during the reign of King
John, we find the name of Sir Philip D'Aubeny amongst the
barons who signed the Magna Charta. Sir Philip D'Aubeny left
England for the holy wars in Palestine in 1222. He resided in
the country for fourteen years, dying in 1236. Matthew Paris,
the famous historian, describes him as "miles strenuus, ac
morum honestate commendabilis," "a valiant soldier of honour-
able and commendable manners," and refers to his death in the
following terms: "Circa illos dies, nobilis ac Deo devotus, in
armis strenuus miles, Philippus de Albineto, postquam militav-
erat Deo in Terra Sancta, peregrinando pluries, tandem in eadem
diem claudens extremum, et finem faciens laudabilem, sanctam
meruit in Terra Sancta, quod vivus diu desideraverat, sepul-
turam," which may thus be translated: "About this time" (A.D.
1236) "the noble devotee to God's service, the unflinching warrior,
Philip de Albineto, after that he had fought for God in the Holy
Land, and oft made pilgrimage there, at last closed his days in
the same, and, making a laudable end to his godly life, merited,
what living he had long fervently desired, holy burial in the
Holy Land." The identity of the personage buried here has
been incontestably proved by the armorial bearings, as well
as by historical references, with the family of D'Aubeny, still
existing in England, the chief seat of which appears to have
been the manor of South Petherton, Somersetshire.

CHAPTER VIII.

HE lintels . over the portals to the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre are ornamented with choice i2th
century carvings, those sculptured over the left-hand
entrance gate (illustration 41), being scenes from, the
life of our Saviour, whilst those on the right-hand
walled-up gateway (illustration 42) are of a mytho-
logical character, with a spirited figure of a centaur in the

(41) Sculpture on Portal.

centre. A fragment of the scene depicted on the western portal
was broken away some centuries ago, but, having been recovered,
is now preserved in the Louvre (illustration 43). See Professor
Ganneau's "Archaeological Researches."

(42) Sculpture on Portal.

Entering the church, which is open only at certain hours,
we notice, first of all, on our left, the deep-cushioned recess
constantly occupied by the Moslem door-keepers. These having
official custody of the key, open and close the building at the
appointed times, and are said to be willing to open at other
hours as well — for backsheesh. The office of door-keeper to

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the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is hereditary in the very old
Moslem family of the Ensaybehs.

In the corner opposite the door-keeper's recess, we notice
some quadrant-shaped stairs, which form the lower part of an
ascent to the large vaulted chamber called "Calvary." There
are other staircases to it from other parts of the church as well.
Just in front of us, as we step northwards, lies stretched east
and west the traditional Stone of Unction, on which the body of
the Saviour is said to have been laid in order to be anointed
for burial. At either end are great tripod candlesticks, and
suspended over it ornamental lamps. These accessories are

(43) A Fragment in Paris.

the property of the different religious communities, Orthodox-
Greek, Armenian, Roman, and others, who possess "rights"
in the great church. The stone itself, which is said at one time
to have lain further north, is nine feet long, four feet six inches
wide, and one foot high (illustration 44). It is of the native red
limestone, and has, it is asserted, been placed here only in
order to protect the real stone, which lies underneath, from
the hands of eager pilgrims. The first mention of it is found in
the 1 2th century narrative of Saewulf's pilgrimage. At that
time the stone was shewn in the Chapel of. the Virgin, which,
as above noted, is supposed to have occupied the position now
in part occupied by the bell-tower. It lies in what is really the
south transept of the church, though, because of the filling up
of the great arch behind the stone and the separation of this

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part of the building from the central Greek Cathedral, which is
actually the nave of the church, it is difficult to realise this with-
out having a ground-plan of the building before one.

On our right hand, as we stand before the stone of unction,
we notice, a doorway admitting the visitor to a chapel situated
underneath the Greek Chapel of the Exaltation of the Cross, or

(44) The Stone of Unction.

"Calvary" (illustration 45). Just inside the door-way are two
benches, one on either side. That on the left marks the spot
where once stood the cenotaph of Duke Godfrey de Bouillon,
the first Crusading King of Jerusalem. The tombstone disap-
peared at the time of the great fire of 1808, though, fortunately,
descriptions and sketches of it are extant, from which we learn
that it was "a roof-shaped monument of fine porphyry, with
vertical gable ends and ornamental edges — supported on four

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dwarf-twisted columns, resting on a plinth of marble. On the
sloping surface was the following inscription: —

"Hie jacet inclytus
Dux Godefridus de Bulion
Qui totam istam terram
Acquisivit Cultui Christiano :
Cujus Anima regnet cum Christo. Amen."

The epitaph may thus be rendered: — "Here lies the celebrated
Duke Godfrey de Bouillon, who won the whole of this country
to the Christian religion. May his soul reign with Christ.
Amen." It is noticeable that in his epitaph the hero is not
styled Rex, a king, but Dux, a duke, because, though elected

(45) Calvary Chapel.

king, he would not, in his humble piety, accept the royal title,
and refused to wear a kingly diadem in the city where his Sav-
iour had worn a crown of thorns. Surrounded as we are on this
spot by sites of doubtful genuineness, and by absurd traditions,
it does one good to realize that one is standing beside an
actually historic site commemorating a man of Godfrey's char-
acter. The tomb of Baldwin, his brother and successor, is
marked by the bench on the opposite side of the doorway.
Further on in the chapel we are shewn the tomb of Melchizedec,
the place where the skull of Adam was buried, and also the
lower part of the rent made in the rock by the earthquake at the
time of our Lord's crucifixion. The upper portion of what is
said to be the same crack is shown in the"Calvary" Chapel over
head, and the tradition is that some of the blood of the Saviour
dropped through the fissure on to the head of Adam and raised

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our first ancestor to life. The idea may be traced back to the
days of Origen (second century). In the south wall of this
chapel of Godfrey, Baldwin, Melchizedec, and Adam, is a door-
way leading to a chamber used as an office by the Greek ecclesi-
astical officials. From this room there is access to another, in
which are preserved various antiquities and relics, which are
shewn to visitors who care to look at them.

Leaving this place we pass the eastern end of the stone of
unction, and a couple of steps round the corner to our right
bring us to the foot of another staircase leading up to the
Calvary Chapel, belonging to the Greeks. Under the altar at the

(46) Chapel of the Resurrection in the Rotunda.

eastern 'end (shewn conspicuously in illustration 45), is a round
metal-lined hole, in a marble slab, said to be the very hollow
in which the Saviour's cross was fixed. Just to the right of the
altar is a long slit in the marble, covered with a movable
metal lid. This is visible in the photograph, and does duty for
the upper part of the cleft in the rock. The altar further to the
right is Latin property, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and
yet further to right, the southern half of the large chamber,
above the chapel of Adam and the Greek ecclesiastic's office,
belongs to the Latins, and is furnished at its east end with their
altar. Though it is really only an upper floor room with
chambers underneath, it is gravely pointed out to credulous
pilgrims as the place where our Lord was nailed to the cross.

Through a barred window, which was formerly a doorway,
we look into the Latin Chapel of Mary's Agony, said to mark

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the spot where she stood during the Crucifixion. It is remark-
able for its painted glass window, and was originally a porch
with steps leading up to it, by which the Calvary Chapel
chamber could be reached from the outside, without entering
the great Church doors.

Descending to the southern transept we once more pass
the stone of unction, and, proceeding westwards, notice, on

(47) Chapel of the Resurrection.

our left, a circular slab in the floor covered by a sort of metal
cage. It is said to mark the place where the women stood
afar off beholding the Crucifixion, and afterwards where the
Virgin Mary stood whilst the body of Jesus was laid on the
stone of unction to be prepared for burial. Behind this a
staircase, with very high and slippery steps, leads up to the

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Armenian part of the lower gallery, behind the eighteen great
piers encircling the rotunda.

Leaving this behind us, we turn northward into the rotunda,
the lower western part and piers of which are seen in illustration
46, which also shews the front of the Resurrection-Chapel in the
centre. In illustration 47 we see the same front of this chapel,
but in a different light, in which the lamps and candelabra, of
which a certain fixed number belongs to various communities^

(48) Entrance to the Chapel of the Angel.

are more clearly distinguishable. The entrance porch leading
into the front chamber (illustration 48), is called "the Angel
Chapel," because on a pedestal in its centre is shewn a fragment
of the very stone which was rolled from the door of the tomb,
and on which the angel was seen sitting on the Resurrection
morning. Another piece of the same stone is shewn built
into an altar in the Armenian chapel of the Palace of Caiaphas
outside the Zion Gate.

CHAPTER IX.

jWO oval windows in the wall right and left indicate
the place where the Holy Fire first appears on the
Greek Easter-Eve (illustration 49 and 50). These
shew the general appearance of the Sepulchre Chapel
in the Rotunda. It is well-known that the popular
notion amongst the lower classes in the Greek
Church is that this fire comes direct from Heaven as a result of
the prayers of the titular Bishop of Petra, who is the special
official to perform the ceremony. More educated and enlight-
ened Greeks believe that it is merely a symbolical ceremony
commemorative of the light of hope, joy and life bursting upon
the darkened and mourning Church by the good news of our
Lord's resurrection from the tomb.

Much has been written on the subject rightly deploring
and denouncing the abuses the ceremony has led to, and calling
it an imposture, How it first came to be observed seems to be
generally unknown. One usually reads in works on Palestine a
repetition of the statement in Robinson's "Biblical Researches,"
vol. I. page 393, that the monk Bernhard, who visited Jerusalem
A.D. 870, is the first traveller to mention the jugglery of the
Greek holy fire. May I therefore venture to call attention to
what I believe to have been the forgotten origin of a commem-
orative anniversary service, which has unfortunately led to dis-
graceful abuses ? Descriptions of scenes witnessed in the Church
of the Sepulchre on occasions whether remotely or more recently
past, are numerous, and I need not dwell on that side of the
subject.

The Church historian, Eusebius, quoted in Williams' "Holy
City," vol. I., page 226, relates that during the episcopate of
Narcissus (A.D. 180 — 222), one of the most godly of the early
Bishops of Aelia Capitolina, several notable miracles were per-
formed in answer to that prelate's prayers. One is specially
mentioned:

"It was on the great Vigils of the Feast of Easter, when oil
was wanting for the church, and the drawers were greatly per-
plexed, that he ordered them to draw water out of the nearest

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well, which, being consecrated by his prayers, and poured into
the lamps with sincere faith in the Lord, contrary to all reason
and expectation, by a miraculous and Divine power, was changed
into the fatness of oil."

(49) The Holy Fire Place in the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre.

Whilst dwelling on this subject I may add that the present
crowding and grouping of so many holy sites together, in so

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incongruous a manner, under one roof, may probably have in a
like way not have originated in an intentional purpose to-
deceive, but have grown out of services held in remote periods
at different spots for the instruction of ignorant pilgrims, a
very small percentage of whom, it must be remembered, were

(50) Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre.

able to read the Gospels for themselves in the dark Middle
Ages. There may have been special arrangements that the
pilgrims should have an opportunity of hearing one part of the
Gospel story read in one memorial chapel, whilst at the same
time in another a different portion of Scripture was read at
another service. As the pilgrims came by thousands then, just

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as they do now, and as the Church of Christ was not then as
divided as it unhappily is in our days, there must have been
some arrangement made for different congregations to meet in
differing places of worship. As time went on, the purely com-
memorative character of the church, chapel or oratory, would
gradually be lost sight of, and the memorial church of St. James
or St. Peter, for instance, would come to be considered as the

(51) The Interior of the Holy Sepulchre.

very place where the former was beheaded, or the latter wept,
when he heard the cock crow after he had denied his Master.
A next step would naturally be the exact localization of the
details of the story, and the square yard would be identified on
to which the martyr's head rolled, or where it was buried, and
the pillar would be found and recognized upon which the cock
happened to be standing. Thus, round a perfectly innocent and
even praiseworthy beginning, misunderstandings, misrepresen-

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tations, and finally shameful abuses would gradually grow. I
write this as the most likely and most charitable explanation of
much in the Church of the Sepulchre and its surroundings, as
well as in other parts of Jerusalem, that offends us as being
grotesque, absurd, grossly idolatrous, and dishonouring to the
name of Christian.

Just behind the pedestal (illustration 48), which is supporting
the stone on which the angel sat, is seen the low entrance,
which must perforce be entered in a stooping posture, to
the tomb chamber itself, the interior of which illustration 51
shews. The artificial bench formed of white marble, cracked
through the centre and much worn by the lips of pilgrims,
has, suspended over it and constantly burning, forty-three hand-
some lamps, which are fed with olive oil. Of these, thirteen
belong to the Greeks, thirteen to the Latins, and the same
number to the Armenians, whilst the Copts are only allowed
four. The curiously shaped tent-roofed turret upon the roof of
the chambers is hollow in its centre, and has windows for venti-
lation. The room itself is so narrow that only three or four
persons can at the same time kneel before the stone bench. The
whole of this Sepulchre-chapel, built of native rose-coloured
limestone, with marble accessories, in 1810, by the architect
ComnenoS; of Mitylene, whose name is recorded on an inscrip-
tion just inside the inner doorway, is modern.

Of the original tomb, discovered by Constantine the Great's
excavators (leaving aside the question as to whether it really was
the sepulchre in which our Lord lay, or not), it is most unlikely
that a vestige exists. The following is, in brief, the utterance of
a leading modern Roman Catholic authority on Palestine. "His-
tory teaches us that of the ancient rock-cave of which the Holy
Scripture tells us (which was seriously injured, first by Con-
stantine the Great, out of love to Christ, and then by the
Persians A.D., 614 out of hatred to Christianity), nothing but the
site where it stood remains; seeing that in A.D. 1010 it was
destroyed down to the very ground by Hiaroth, governor of
Ramleh, and by the orders of the Khalifeh El Hakim." (Mom-
mert's "Golgotha," ch. xii., p. no).

CHAPTER X.

(EAVING the Tomb-chapel we turn to the right in
order to walk round the little building and between
it and the circle of piers constituting the Rotunda.
This circle is 26 feet long, 18 broad, and pentagonal
at its west end. It is built of the native rose-
coloured and white crystalline limestone, and orna-
mented in front with slender spiral marble columns, etc.
Illustrations 49 and 50 give an idea of the general ap-
pearance of the structure. Clinging to the west end, inside
an iron cage, is a small oratory belonging to the Copts, and
just opposite this, and between two of the columns of the
Rotunda, is a door leading into the dark Syrian chapel, which
is simply the western apse of the church. Through a low
doorway in the wall of this chapel, the real ownership of
which is claimed and sometimes fought over by both Armen-
ians and Syrians, we enter a small chamber, one side of which
is formed by the circular outer wall of the Rotunda, and the
others by those of an ancient Jewish rock-hewn tomb with
kokim, or oven-shaped recesses to receive the dead. There
are two of these loculi in the southern wall, with a lamp burning
before them. These are said by tradition to be the graves of
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, the last-named of whom
is supposed to have made arrangements that when he and his
colleague died their bodies were not to be laid in the tomb
originally intended for himself, and in which the Saviour's
body was laid till His Resurrection, but in this tomb close by.

On the western side of the chamber are the blocked-up
entrances to other kokim, which, by the removal of the rock
partitions between them, have been made into one chamber,
which is fitted with a wooden door. It is generally kept
locked, but on the occasion of the last visit of the late Sir
Charles Wilson to Jerusalem, it was opened for him by the
orders of the Greek Patriarch, and the writer was honoured by
receiving an invitation from Sir Charles to accompany him and
Mr. Dickson, the late British Consul, and Mr. C. A. Hornstein,
when they went to examine it.

In the floor just in front of the entrances to the kokim of
Joseph and Nicodemus is a shaft cut in the rock, and at the

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bottom of this are other kokim. Similar tombs exist in the
Coptic Convent just outside the church at its eastern end, so
there is no doubt that at one time or other the place where the
church now stands was really a cemetery. This fact, however,
does not bring us any nearer the solution of the problem as to
whether the sepulchre of Christ was here, because, in the
first place, nobody doubts that, during the time of the kings of

(52) Ventilating Turret on Roof of the
Sepulchre Chapel.

Judah, and before the building of the second wall, the place
was outside the first wall which was much further south, and
ran from the citadel, near the Jaffa Gate, straight to the Temple-
area. Secondly, we know from several passages in Josephus
(Wars v., chapter ix. § 2; chapter xi.. 4, etc.), that during the
siege by Titus, there actually was a sepulchral monument, that
of the high priest John, situated somewhere very close to, if

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not on the actual site of, the present church itself. It adjoined
the spot where the Roman fifteenth legion was engaged in
constructing banks. It is therefore quite possible that the
mound of earth which in A.D. 327 the workmen of Constantine
the Great removed, when they discovered what was taken to
be our Lord's Sepulchre, was really part of the bank raised
by this fifteenth legion. Who can tell? From "Wars, book v.
ix. § 2, we learn that the mound or "bank" in question was
cast up, "at John's monument," and after the taking of the
second wall.

It, therefore, seems clear that the monument was situated
inside the second wall. But one cannot now be quite sure.

Returning to the Rotunda we notice; as we now pass to the
north of the Tomb-chapel, that between each pair of the great

Church of St. Helena.

circle of piers (illustration 46), there are chambers, which have
been formed at some period after the Crusading time by dividing
up the ambulatory that originally ran round this part of the
church and between the piers and the outer wall. The series
of rooms thus formed is apportioned out amongst the various
sects, and used as store-rooms. Above this set of rooms are
galleries. In illustration 52, taken from the Armenian gallery,
we have a view of the ventilating turret on the roof of the
Chapel of the Sepulchre, and also of some of the piers.

Having noticed this w.e reach an open space to our left,
forming a vestibule to the Franciscan Chapel of the Apparition.
In the floor of the vestibule two stones, a little distance from

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each other, mark the traditional spots where the risen Lord and
Mary respectively stood when He appeared to the latter and she
took Him to be the gardener. In the Franciscan chapel the
visitor is shewn a piece of a pillar to which our Lord is said to
have been tied, and in the vestry, which is on the left-hand side
as we leave the chapel, the sword and spurs of Godfrey de
Bouillon. People who are made Knights of the Order of the
Holy Sepulchre are invested with these and pay high sums for
the doubtful honour and privilege. I am told, on good authority,
that the price of the lowest grade is £40. East of the vestibule
of the Chapel of the Apparition is the northern transept of the
great church, and here, in the shape of arches supported by
masonry, flying buttresses, etc., we note vestiges of structural
alterations of different dates. At the eastern end of the transept
is a low white-washed chapel belonging to the Greeks, and
called "The Prison of Christ." At its entrance one is shewn
"the stocks," two round holes in a marble slab.

In prolongation of the northern transept is the great eastern
ambulatory, very dark and gloomy, containing three apses fitted
up as chapels, and named respectively, beginning with the most
northerly, the Greek chapel of Longinus; the Armenian, and the
Greek. Situated between the two last-named is a great, steadily
widening staircase, with cross marks and names of pilgrims
carved on its side walls, and leading down to the underground
Church of St. Helena (illustration 53). It is a very picturesque
structure, the northern and southern sides being partly rock,
cased with masonry. The rough floor is fully 16 feet lower than
that of the Rotunda, and the chamber measures, according to a
statement which the present writer has not verified, but supposes
to be fairly correct, 51 feet by 43. It is divided into a central
nave with lateral aisles by four ancient Byzantine columns with
dilapidated massive basket capitals patched with piaster. The
roofs are groined, and from the central one, above the four
capitals, rises a low drum, pierced with four windows, lighting
up the chapel, and supporting a semi-spherical dome. The
exterior of this drum and dome rises, like a mountain standing in
the niiddle of a plain, from the courtyard of the Abyssinian con-
vent (illustrations 37 and 38 above).

The Church of St. Helena is said to have belonged to the
Abyssinians formerly, but was seized by the Armenians at the
time that the Abyssinians in Jerusalem died out, during the
plague of 1838. It contains two altars, that to the north being
dedicated to the penitent thief, and that next to it to St. Helena.

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Close to the latter is shown the stone seat which that lady rested
on whilst superintending the excavations in search of our Lord's
Cross, but unfortunately for the legend, it cannot be historically
proved that Helena did institute such a search. The tradition
connecting her with the Invention of the Cross and the building
by Constantine of the Church of the Sepulchre, did not originate
till over half-a-century after her time, and her contemporaries
mention none of the circumstances related in the legend.

A rough rock-hewn staircase in the S.E. corner of the church
leads down into the cavern where the three crosses are said to
have been discovered. The exact spot, belonging to the Greeks,
is pointed out where they lay. The true one was identified by the
circumstance that when laid beside a dying woman it restored
her to perfect health, the other two having failed to do her any
good. Such tales must be taken with much salt. Of genuine,
but melancholy, interest is the altar with a statue in the north-
ern part of the cave. It belongs to the Latins, and commemorates
the visit to Jerusalem, 50 years ago, of the ill-fated Maximilian,
then Archduke of Austria, and afterwards Emperor of Mexico,
shot at Queretaro in 1867 by the victorious insurgents.

Before leaving the Church of St. Helena, we are shewn on
the northern wall, not far from the altar of the penitent thief,
what seems to be a plastered-up window, and we are gravely
informed that there was originally an orifice here which reached
down into purgatory, so that people could distinctly hear sighs,
cries and groans of anguished souls undergoing punishment. As
these sounds proved too trying for the nerves of modern sinners,
the crack was very wisely closed up. A similar absurd story is
related concerning the stone said to mark the middle of the
world in the great central nave of the Church of the Sepulchre,
set apart as the Greek Cathedral (illustration 54).

This Cathedral lies east of the Rotunda, and opposite the
Tomb-chapel, and is best approached from that direction, al-
though there are two doors opening into it from the ambulatory
north and south. It is divided from the northern and southern
transepts of the Church of the Sepulchre by stone walls lined
with carved gilt and painted wooden wainscoting. On the west
it opens from the Rotunda by a great pointed arch. Within is
the great central lantern of the church formed by three similar
arches, north, south and east, and rising like the western one
from four huge masonry piers about 40 feet apart, north and
south, and 98 feet east and west. These arches support a drum

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with a "masonry dome, the inside of which was once ornamented
with a I2th century fresco painting of the mystic Vine of David.
Only some traces of this are still distinguishable. To the east of
the lantern is a great apse, separated from the Catholicon, or body
of the church, where the congregation assembles, by a richly gilt
screen, the Iconostasis, which is intended, as in all Orthodox
Greek churches, to hide the priest consecrating the elements of
the Holy Communion from the gaze of the people. No female
is allowed to pass behind this screen. Ranged round this apse,
are stone benches, raised in steps one above the other, like a
Roman theatre in miniature, for the clergy to sit in ecclesiastical
order x>f precedence on either side of the Patriarchal chair,
which is placed in the centre higher than all. From this apse,

(54) The Greek Cathedral.

called the "Hagion," or Sanctuary, there are staircases to the
Calvary-chapel and other chambers, built over the great
ambulatory, round the Church of the centre of the world,
which is thus named from a low stone pedestal in the centre of
the nave (illustration 54), and said to mark that spot. An old
Greek priest once solemnly informed the writer that there is a
tradition that before this pedestal was placed there, a hole was
there to purgatory, or rather hell, for the Greeks profess not to
believe in purgatory.

Along both the northern and southern walls of the nave
are arranged stalls for clergy, and two episcopal thrones; that
on the north for the Patriarch of Antioch, the southern for his
brother of Jerusalem. Between these and the Iconostasis are
two ancient stone pulpits, rarely, if ever used.

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Another "centre of the world" at Jerusalem is in the Temple-
area, and revered by Jews and Moslems, though the former may
not visit it. The idea of a centre of the world in the Holy
City, though a quaint one, is not actually absurd. It has, as

B. CapcHaieconda;

C. Sjtvtcc.-jutra del Mote, (damo
D l>uuc i u ucnutt la teftad* A-

jS/S'cppicro dd Re 'Balctuino.
G/La picrra (JelPonuone.
H. E»«ate deila Ciiieia. >,

(55) Photograph of Mount Calvary.

Dr. Schick remarks, "a typical meaning, as Jerusalem is to the
Jews, Christians, and Moslems, a Holy City."

I am indebted for illustration 55 to a friend who furnished me
with the negative of a reproduction of a picture in an old book
("Zuallardo's Travels") in the library of the Franciscan Convent.

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The author and artist were here in 1586, and the picture is inter-
esting, not only because it shews the chapels on the traditional
Calvary in very much the same condition as they are now, but
because in the chapel below, the exact positions respectively of
the monuments of the first two Crusading kings, Godfrey and
Baldwin, are indicated, and drawings of the same shewn. The
following explanation of the letters may be interesting: —

A. The Calvary Chapel (Greek).

B. Chapel where according to tradition our Lord was nailed

to the Cross (Latin).

C. Underneath same roof as the Calvary Chapel, and to the
1 right of the altar. "The rent in the rock."

D. Underneath Calvary Chapel, Chapel of Melchizedec and

place of Adam's skull.

E. Monument of Godfrey.

F. Do. Baldwin.

G. Stone of Unction.

H. In ambulatory to left of picture is the staircase leading
up to Calvary Chapel in 1586.

In a remarkable address, by the Rev. Dr. Munro Gibson,
one of the speakers at the Sunday School Convention, delivered
in Jerusalem, in 1904, he said:

"We can all put the centre of the earth where we like now-a-
days. The most interesting map I ever saw was a map that
made Chicago the centre of the earth. ... I have at home a
classical map of the ancient world. . . . I measured the length of
it and breadth of it, and took the exact centre, and it •was right in
Jerusalem.

"Palestine, though small, was in no corner of the earth. South
of it was Egypt; east, Babylon; north-east, Assyria; north,
Tyre, Sidon, and Syria; and west, Greece and Rome. If you
take Jerusalem as the centre of a radius of twelve degrees of
latitude, and describe a circle, you will include the capitals of all
the countries which figured in the world's history up to the time
of Alexander the Great. There is no other capital of which this
can be said. . . . The world of course was not nearly so large in
ancient times as it is now, but such as it was, the Holy Land
was in the centre of it. Think of it and you will see that it
would have been impossible to have chosen a better position.
This rocky ridge — lifted up above the great river-plains around
where grew and flourished the empires of antiquity — was a mag-
nificent rostrum from which to reach the nations with the Word
of God. Well might the Hebrew prophets lift up their voices
to the nations far and near, with a cry like this: 'O earth, earth,
earth, hear the word of the Lord.' Or, this: 'Hear, ye people,
all of you : hearken, O earth, and all that therein is.' "

CHAPTER XI.

JEAVING the great courtyard in front of the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre by the small door at its
south-eastern corner, we enter a short street leading
eastwards. This is generally called "Palmers'
Street," from the supposition that it was here that,
in the middle ages, pilgrims from Europe, who had
fulfilled their vows and were about to return to their native land,
purchased the palm branches which they took with them in
attestation of the journey. As a matter of fact, the old "Palmers'
Street" was a few yards further north, though it ran parallel with

(56) Ancient Masonry of the Russian Hospice.

the modern one. The large vaulted refectory in the lower part
of the Convent of Abraham, was originally part of the older
street of the palm-sellers.

Palmers' Street is called by the natives, "Harat ed Dabb-
agha," or "Street of the Tannery," from a tannery, the smells
and refuse water from which constituted a nuisance which made
it almost impossible to pass that way. This state of things con-
tinued till after the close of the Crimean War.

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From the earliest times it has been the custom amongst
victorious Oriental nations to endeavour to cast ridicule upon
the adherents of a rival faith, by giving to their places of public
worship names of reproach sounding very similar to their real
appellations; and, whenever they had the power, by installing
nuisances either upon or, at any rate, as close as possible to

(57) Ancient Ruins in the Hospice.

their -sites. We find in Scripture a good many allusions illus-
trative of this mode of action (II. Kings x. 27; Daniel iii. 29),
and the way in which proper names are used to play upon,
in such passages as Micah i. 10-15, where we may read: —

"In Dust-town (Beth Aphrah) I wallow in the dust. Ye
people of Fair-town (Shaphir), in shameful nakedness pass
away. The people of Flock-town (Zaanan) have not gone forth
like a flock. The calamity of Neighbour-town (Beth-ezel) makes

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it no neighbour to give you refuge. For the people of Bitter-
town (Maroth) have writhed with pain for something good and
pleasant. . . . Ye people of Horse-town (Lachish) bind the horse
swift for flight to the chariot. . . . Therefore must thou, O Israel,
give up possession of Gath's possession (Moreshethgath). The
houses of False-town (Achzib) shall be as a false fountain to the
kings of Israel. I will yet bring an inheritor who shall lay claim
to you, ye people of Heritage-town (Mareshah).*

In like manner, though much more offensively, the Moslems,
who for centuries have been the ruling class in Jerusalem, call
the Church of El Kiamah or the Resurrection, the Church of El-

(58) Old Roman Gateway.

Kamamah, that is, of the dunghill; and that of St. Martin, or
Mar Martin, where the great synagogue of the Perushim now
stands, El-Maraghah, which means, "The place where don-
keys roll."

The appearance of Palmers' Street has altogether changed
for the better since the days when the writer first knew it, fifty
years ago. Not only has the offensive tannery disappeared, but
also the great mounds of rubbish and ruin which then towered
above the narrow pathway on either side; and in their stead
there are handsome two-storied structures in the ornamental
French and Italian style. Some of the most important and

* It has been suggested by some commentators that the name "Mount of Corruption"
(II. Kings xxiii. 13), in like manner originated in an offensive caricaturing of playing or
punning upon the word anointing. Mischah nH^D anointing thus becoming "Maschith"
coriuption.

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interesting bits of ruin have been carefully preserved inside the
new Russian Hospice, at the eastern end of the thoroughfare,
and just opposite the German Emperor's Erloser-kirche, a repro-
duction of, and standing on the site of, the old Crusading
Church of St. Mary of the Latins, which belonged originally to
the famous Order of the Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem.
For the outside appearance of the Erloser-kirche see illustration
33. Illustrations 56 and 57 shew two interesting pieces |of
ancient masonry as they appeared before the erection of the

(59) Ancient Wall in Russian Hospice.

Russian Hospice. Illustration 58 is the ruin of an old Roman
.gateway which was repaired at some unknown period with
materials taken from the ruins of some Byzantine structure.
Illustration 59 shews a remarkable fragment of ancient wall,
discovered nearly half a century ago, and around which ex-
cavations were made forty years ago by the late Sir Charles
Wilson. He found that it had formed part of the great buildings
of the Emperor Constantine, and, as the holes in its face shew,

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

had at one time been covered with marble slabs. The remains
of the copper clamps, which held the latter in their places, are
still clearly visible inside the holes. Nevertheless, the supporters
of the view that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains
the actual and true site >of Calvary maintain that this is a genuine
fragment of the second wall of Jerusalem on the north in our
Lord's time, outside which He was crucified. The southern end
of this relic is seen (illustration 56) covered with heaps of

(60) Ruins of the Church of St. Mary the Latin.

stones, and adjoining masonry of much later dates, most of
which are now removed. The above-mentioned Russian Hos-
pice, where this wall and other ancient remains can now be
easily examined, is worth a visit.

All along the southern side of "Palmers' Street" lies the
"Muristan," or site of the magnificent buildings once belonging
to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The western part,
occupying about two-thirds of the whole, belongs to the Ortho-
dox Greek Church. All traces have been quite removed of the

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splendid *Church of St. Mary the Greater, which stood a few
yards to the west of St. Mary of the Latins (illustration 60), and
was so called in order to distinguish it from the latter, which
was a smaller edifice. The southern apse, which is clearly
shewn in this illustration marks "The old Hospital of St. John,"
though this description is not correct. The apse, and also the
Saracenic staircase, the latter built after the Crusaders had been
driven from the city by Saladin in 1187, had to be removed when
the "Erloser-kirche" was built, as above related.

(61) Crusading Cloisters, south of Church of
St. Mary the Latin.

Immediately adjoining the latter on the south are still
existing ruins of the building supposed to have been occupied
by the Sisterhood attached to the Order of St. John. These
mediaeval and very interesting remains belong to Prussia, and

* A few years ago the apses and other remains of the Greater St. Mary were dis-
covered, but have now all been removed in order to erect new buildings. A few of the
beautiful capitals have been preserved and may, at present, be seen in the entrance
hall to the Convent of Abraham, where also are some fragments, including a magnificent
group of an archer (Sagittarius) attacked by a wolf, and other stone carvings that
formed part of a sculptured "Zodiac,"' like that over the portal to St. Mary the Less
(Erloser-Kirche), but on a grander scale.

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stretch southward as far as David Street, the old vaults "bord-
ering which, on the north, are used partly as shops and partly
as the corn bazaar. Here the process, so often described by
writers on Eastern manners and customs, of measuring grain
with "good measure, pressed down and shaken together and
running over," may be watched at all hours of the day (illus-
tration 63).

The Greek portion of the "Muristan" is separated from that
belonging to the Germans by a new street, cut a few years ago
right through the ruins from north to south, and called the

(62) Mediaeval Doorway in the Cloisters.

"Kaiser Friedrich's Strasse," in memory of the father of the
present German Emperor, who, in 1869, when he was Crown
Prince of Prussia, visited the Holy City, and took possession of
the ruins which had been presented to his father by Sultan
Abdul Aziz. Remains of the old cloisters adjoining the Er-
loser-kirche are shewn in illustration 61, and a handsome
mediaeval doorway opening into them, in illustration 62.

In the south-western part of the "Muristan," in the angle
formed by the junction of David Street with Christian Street,
is the hospice and church of St. John the Forerunner, the latter

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

being a mediaeval structure, restored in 1847. It is very peculiar
in shape, consisting of three apses and a corridor running across
from north to south, to the west of them. Still more remarkable,
however, is the much more ancient crypt or underground
church, lying some twenty feet or thereabouts below the level
of Christian Street, and just beneath the church we have
described. It was apparently a Byzantine building, which suff-
ered alterations at some later period. In shape it resembles the
building above it with the three apses and a western corridor,
but the existence of large windows and a door, all of them
walled up, reveals the startling fact that its floor, now so far

(63) Measuring Wheat.

underground, was, at the time it was built, the ordinary ground
level of this part of the City, perhaps fifteen hundred years
ago. As a matter of fact, this subterranean and forgotten Christ-
ian place of worship, together with a series of very large
cisterns which honeycomb the ground both north and east of
St. John the Forerunner, occupy the hollow on the eastern side
of the great dam upon which Christian Street runs northward.
Some authorities believe that this is a vestige of "the Broad
Wall" of Nehemiah iii. 8; xii. 38. The underground church
and cisterns also furnish a further proof that the present
"Muristan" occupies and fills up the head of what was, at

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one time, a wide valley. Illustration 64 shews the entrance to
this Church of St. John.

On the east the "Muristan" is bounded by the westernmost of
three parallel bazaars or market-streets. These are one of the
most picturesque parts of the city, as far as concerns the variety
of costumes one meets with as one traverses them. Turkish
soldiers in tattered cotton uniforms; fellahin from different parts
of the country; government officials in red fezzes and ill-fitting
European clothing, and wearing coats somewhat clerical in
shape; townswomen in long white or coloured sheets, envel-
oping them from head to foot; Christian ecclesiastics, wearing

(64) Entrance to Church of St. John.

long dark robes, and headdresses of different shapes; Ashkenaz
Jews in long kaftans and black hats; peasant women in dark
blue gowns and with white veils over their heads; Bedu from
the Belka, armed with scimitar and huge old-fashioned flint-lock
pistols; and tall fierce-looking Circassians, who have, in san-
guinary fights, ousted those very Bedu from the old camping
grounds and pasture-land east of the Jordan; Greeks from the
Archipelago; Persians, wearing long conical and comical brown
sugarloaf-like hats, with green turbans wrapped round their

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bases; negroes, Hindus, Arabs, gipsies, Italians, Frenchmen,
Orientals, Europeans, Africans and Yankees; in short, all sorts
and conditions of men and women, in all sorts and conditions of
clothing, meet and jostle each other as they pass through the
narrow thoroughfare, or try to do so.

(65) A Vaulted Bazaar.

CHAPTER XII.

|HE bazaars themselves, may perhaps be best
described as very long-vaulted corridors or tunnels,
built of ancient and very ruinous-looking masonry,
with small chambers, by courtesy called shops, on
either side. (Illustration 65).

These shops are deep recesses, not more than
twelve feet square at the most, inside. The passage-way along the
bazaars is perhaps fifteen feet wide, not more. The only light
and air come in from the ends of the tunnel, some hundred
yards distant, or from holes in the centre of the vaulted roofs,
twenty feet overhead, which also serve as vents for the escape
of blue smoke and vapour from numerous cook and blacksmiths'
shops located in the above-mentioned recesses. The western-
most of the three tunnels is set apart for the use of butchers,
blacksmiths and coppersmiths, and makers of the rough camel-
leather shoes worn by the peasantry. Here and there, spread
upon the floor of the street, just in front of one or the other of
these shops, we find a huge raw camel's hide put out to be
tanned, and whether we approve of the occupation or not, we
have to help, by walking over it, to turn it into leather. It is
hardly necessary to say that the atmosphere, in the western
bazaar especially, is most unwholesome.

The middle corridor is called "Suk el Attareen," or "Market
of the Apothecaries," because it is occupied chiefly by Eastern
druggists, who, seated cross-legged and generally smoking at
the doors of their respective places of business, sell spices, nails,
sulphur, oriental saddle bags and saddlery, rope and string, and
many other dissimilar articles which are not easy to get in other
parts of the town. The pathway between the two rows of shops
in this "bazaar is so narrow that it is hardly possible for two
persons to walk through it side by side, and the shopkeepers on
the iopposite side of the street sit scarcely two yards apart,
looking into each other's shops and faces. Now and then you
will find an open shop, whose owner is absent. In case his
neighbour in the right or left hand shop, or those just opposite,
happens not to have the special article you are in search of, but
knows that the absentee shopkeeper has it, one or the other will

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not only offer you a seat, and perhaps a cigarette, or a cup of
coffee, in order to induce you to await his return, but will even
leave you in sole charge of his own shop, whilst he himself goes
to call him, always supposing that he be not very far off. Such
is Eastern courtesy. Here is an open shop without a shopman,
but you notice that a piece of twine-netting has been stretched
over the wares exposed for sale, or that a chair has been laid
on its back upon them. This is a sign that the merchant has
been called away on special business, or has gone to the

(66) A Street Scene.

mosque to pray, and has left his property and his business,
under the guardianship of his brother tradesmen. Woe to the
impudent thief who, under such circumstances, would venture
to cStretch out his hand to abstract the smallest object from
this shop!

The third and easternmost of the three bazaars, is about one-
half as long as the two others, and is used by silversmiths and
oriental drapers. It is worth visiting, because it alone, of all
the streets of Jerusalem, has as yet remained unaltered from the

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condition in which it was sixty, perhaps a hundred, or several
hundreds of years ago.*

Along the sides of the street, and in front of the shops, are
stone benches, about two feet high and a yard wide. The two
leaves of the shop-doors are not hinged on to the side-posts,
as in ordinary doorways, but, respectively, to the door-sills and
the thresholds, and meet in the middle, half way up the door

(67) A Chained Prisoner.

way. When the shop is open, the lower leaf lies flat upon the
stone bench, and if covered with a carpet, forms a convenient
dais or platform on which the merchant and his customers sit
whilst conversing, or else as a counter upon which the shop-
keeper lays his wares. The upper door-leaf is lifted up, and

* This place is too dark and too lively to make it possible to photograph, but pictures
•of shops just like those here described will be found on pages it and 15 of Lanes
""Modern Egyptians," vol. ii.

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kept in position either by an iron bar, which fastens it to the
wall behind, or is propped up in such a manner that it hangs
stretched either horizontally or else sloping upwards over the
bench below, so as to form a canopy or pent-house. From the
lower side of this various goods are hung as advertisements
to passers by, on the same principle that European shop-
windows are "dressed." Here and there some Koranic text or
religious motto, in curiously interlaced ornamental Arabic char-
acters, and placed inside a frame under glass, advertises the
piety of the shop-owner. From the centre of the upper and
overhanging door-leaf, there hangs a knotted and often very
grimy piece of rope, at which the merchant, who has been
sitting cross-legged, clutches, whenever he wants to raise him-
self to an erect posture.

Up till the years 1863 — 4, all the native shops in Jerusalem
were like those in this part of the bazaars, but about that time,
as has been elsewhere related, the local authorities had all the
"mwstabehs," or raised benches running along the streets and
on both sides of the latter, removed, and the thoroughfares
repaved. About 1885 this pavement was taken away, and the
streets paved as they now are, with the middle raised, and the
channels for rain-water at the sides. Till the latter date, there
had been only one gutter, and that down the middle of the
street. Illustration 66 is a view of a bazaar in line with those
just described, but further north, which shews, in the imme-
diate foreground, the place where the great street, running
southward from the Damascus Gate, is crossed by the "Via
Dolorosa," at the point said by a worthless tradition to have
been the 7th Station, or halting place of our Lord during His
progress from Pilate's House to Calvary.

I mention the above apparently trivial circumstances because
it was at the time that the first alterations were made, toy
working parties of chained prisoners (illustration 67), that the
fine old Roman paving slabs, which might be noted here and
there along the line of these three bazaars, disappeared. For-
tunately, however, a portion of the same pavement was
uncovered some years ago, in the Russian property in Palmers'
Street, and has been preserved in its original place and condition
in the Hospice.

As we walk through the old bazaars we notice other proofs,

of their antiquity. Here and there, where the whitewashed

plaster has fallen from the walls, we remark old lettering cut

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deeply into the stones; generally a capital T, or the words
"Seta Anna." The former shews that the shops or buildings
on which it occurs belonged to the Knights Templars, and the
latter marks the property of the Crusaders' Church and the
nunnery of St. Anne, just inside the St. Stephen's Gate. The

* o

O *J

shops in the fine new buildings which, during the last twenty
years, have been erected by the Greeks, are in like manner
marked with cj) the sign or monogram for "taphos" the Sepul-
chre. Thus in modern days we still have survivals of mediaeval
customs. The late Dr. Schick and some other competent
authorities believe that even in the time of Christ there was a

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market on the site now occupied by these bazaars. However,
here in the East the Crusading period is considered horribly
modern, and therefore it is satisfactory to find in these bazaars
other proofs of yet greater age. Not only have we the mention,
by Bernard the Wise, A.D. 867, of the market existing here in
his time, but here and there the shafts of erect columns, still in
sight, peeping through the surrounding masonry, are relics

of the magnificent colonnades erected by Hadrian. These, as
the now famous mosaic map of Medeba attests, ran right
through his Roman town of Aelia Capitolina, from the Gate
of Neapolis, a triumphal arch on the site of the present
Damascus Gate, southward to the neighbourhood of the modern
Zion Gate. Illustration 68 is taken from a reproduction, now
in the library of the College of St. George, of the city of
Jerusalem as it is represented on the Medeba mosaic, and
shews this grand Street of Columns.

CHAPTER XIII.

|HE Muristan is bounded on the south by a part
of the great street which, starting from the Jaffa
Gate, traverses the city, and ends at the western wall
of the Temple-area. Amongst the Frank residents in
Jerusalem it is generally called "David Street," but
amongst the natives its three different parts are
known by as many different names, with which, however, we
need not burden the reader. The first and westernmost part
of it ends, after a descent of twenty-six steps, at the point
where "Christian Street" starts on its course northward.

From this point the great street continues to run eastward
past the Muristan, and as far as the easternmost of the three
bazaars described above. Here the second part of its course
ends, and it suddenly turns to the right, that is, to the south,
for about ten or fifteen yards, when it again turns eastward and
continues its course in that direction to its end. Just where
the street forms an elbow, before starting on the third portion of
its course, is the entrance to the Jewish quarter in this direction.

At the point where the first part of the great street ends,
at the foot of the first twenty-six steps, and on the side exactly
opposite to the entrance to Christian Street, we ascend a very
narrow staircase, or short street scarcely seven feet wide on an
average, along the sides of which wooden benches are placed,
making the roadway yet narrower, but serving to accommodate
the customers of a coffee-stall keeper, who for the last fifty
years has made this staircase his place of business. No camel
ever passes up or down this way, and donkeys rarely, and as
we ascend the staircase, in single file, the coffee-drinkers cour-
teously draw in their feet under the seats to let us pass.
Having got nearly to the top, we turn sharply to the left, that
is to the east, and having mounted the twenty-third step after
leaving the level of Christian Street we follow a short but
rather crooked street which runs in a general way parallel to
the second part of David Street, though at a considerably higher
level.

The fact is that David Street lies, on the plan, along what, in

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the days of the kingdom of Judah was the great high road along,
but outside, the northern wall of Jerusalem ; and there is reason
to believe that the other rather crooked street, which we are
about to traverse, runs along the very top of the said northern
city-wall, which probably still exists, buried under debris.

(70) Saracenic Arch on Site of Porta Ferrea.

We pass the Maronite convent on the right. At its north-
east corner the street of stairs turns off to the south, leading
upwards past the eastern side of the convent, which was
originally the house built for a former British Consul; it then
became the first premises of the Kaiserswerther Deaconesses'
school and hospital, before the erection of their new buildings
outside the city, after which it was sold to the Maronites. If

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we follow the staircase it will bring us past the house which
was occupied by the London Jews Society's missionary, the
Rev. J. Nicolayson, partly built over the now desolate Crusading
chapel of St. James the son of Alphaeus, situated just behind
Christ Church, and now a deserted and ruinous mosque.

Instead, however, of going along this staircase, we shall

(71) Archway entrance to Syrian Convent.

follow the old street on the top of the buried city-wall on its
eastward course. Almost immediately after passing the Maronite
establishment, we come past the House of Industry workshops,
and the house originally built by Dr. Macgowan, and left by him

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to the above Society. It was afterwards occupied in succession
by Drs. "Wheeler and Masterman. The carpentry workshops
and the house between them and the doctor's, were formerly
the Girls' School premises, and stand in Dr. Macgowan's old
garden. Though the doors to these two houses open directly
from the street on its northern side, yet we cannot help being
struck with the circumstance that to reach the workshops, we
have to descend nights of stairs as soon as we have set foot
inside the house doorways. The reason for this is that the said
houses are built up against the ancient wall, two towers belong-
ing to which were discovered at the time the foundations for
the present structures were dug. In the basement of the
house next to that occupied by Dr. Masterman there still exists
a curious "tower-chamber," described in the Palestine Explor-
ation Fund "Quarterly Statement" for October, 1906, and, ac-
cording to monkish tradition, was the prison in which St.
Peter was bound (Acts xii.)

A few yards distant, on the opposite side of the street, we
notice a displaced capital once belonging to a pilaster of the
Corinthian order, and about half a dozen other old stones in a
modern wall. These are, according to tradition, the last vestiges
of the Porta Ferrea, or "iron gate (Acts xii. 10). Unfortunately
for the tradition the said iron gate has been shewn in other
parts of the city at various periods (see Robinson's "Biblical
Researches," vol. ii. page 200 footnote).

Just beyond these vestiges (illustration 69) a Saracenic arch
is built across the street (illustration 70) over the entrance to the
doctor's house above mentioned, and at right angles to the
latter runs the traditional street along which the Apostle pro-
ceeded, past the place where the L.J.S. hospital formerly was,
and its town dispensary now is, to the house of Mary, the
mother of John, whose surname was Mark (Acts xii. 12). The
Jacobite, or Syrian Convent, is asserted by tradition to occupy
the site of this house. The building, having been seriously
damaged by earthquake some years ago, has lately been rebuilt,
but its mediaeval doorway, that at which St. Peter knocked,
according to tradition, has been preserved (illustration 71). In
the church is shewn a picture of the Virgin, said to have been
painted by St. Luke, who is alleged to have been, like one or
more of our modern missionary bishops, not only a doctor but
an artist as well. The font in which tradition says the Virgin
was baptized is also shewn here.

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The street passing this monastery gate winds away uphill
in a general direction to the south-west, till, having passed the

(72) Archway in David Street.

ruined chapel of St. Thomas, it enters the street leading from
the Jaffa Gate to the great Armenian Convent and Church of
St. James.

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We continue our walk from the L.J.S. doctor's house east-
ward, descending till we come upon the Harat el Jawany,
running at right angles to our course. On market days this
bit of thoroughfare is so crowded that it is difficult to get
along. The pavement is covered with peasant-women squat-
ting beside baskets of farm produce, fruit, eggs, vegetables,
leben, poultry, etc. Vendors of native made strawmats and
baskets, range their goods against the wall of the street quite
covering up the ancient arch, which some erroneously sup-
pose to be the remains of the gate Gennath, mentioned by
Josephus as the point from which the second wall of Jerusalem
on the north started. It was situated near the Herodian tower
called Hippicus, and could not have been so far east as this
mysterious and walled-up archway is. On either side of the
street are the shops of native dyers, and we find a number of
Bedawee women haggling with them about the cost of col-
ouring some of their rough homespun.

In order to escape from the throng, we turn aside into what
is now a coffee-shop with a thoroughfare leading right through
it to the elbow of David Street, above mentioned. It is a
curious place. Four roughly constructed arches, rising res-
pectively from as many massive ancient columns, apparently
"in situ," with much battered Byzantine capitals, form a kindred
structure to the Church of St. Helena. This coffee-shop seems
to have been an old cruciform church. Little is known about
it, but tradition says that it was really an ancient place of
Christian worship, and built on the site of the house which
belonged to Zebedee, the father of St. James and St. John.
The Franciscans curiously hold that the reason why St. John
was known to the high-priest (St. John xvii. 16), was the very
simple one that the family of Zebedee used to supply the high-
priest's household with fish from the lake of Gennesareth; and,
as that was at least three days' journey from Jerusalem, the
Apostle's parents, as a matter of course, must have had a dwell-
ing and a place of business in the Holy City, and this was where
it stood. We pass through this puzzling old coffee-house, which
is said to have at one time served as a bath-house, and also as a
mosque, and find ourselves at the spot where the last portion of
David Street commences its descent eastward. The arched and
vaulted tunnel street is dark and gloomy, and the pavement dirty
and slippery all the way, even after we have got out again into
(daylight, and can more clearly see the squalid and tumble-down
buildings on either side. About half-way down the street we

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notice that it is joined by another coming down from the south,
that is from our right. It is the "Haret el Meidan," or Theatre
Street, and along which are the sites respectively of the As-
monean palace and gallery, the German Crusaders' quarters, etc.

(73) Portal of Saracenic Building on the
Site of St. Giles' Abbey.

Just at this point are some quaint old Saracenic buildings.
An archway spans the street, and close by, on the right, is a
picturesque Moorish window balcony, and, just by the lamp, is
the entrance to the Haret Meidan (see illustration 72).

CHAPTER XIV.

the opposite side of the street, and just beyond,
and partly underneath the archway, is an old and
handsome Saracenic building on the site of the
Crusading Church and Abbey of St. Giles, men-
tioned in the "Norman Chro'nicle." Some remains
of the Christian building still exist hidden in the
basement of the later structure. The entrance to the latter, is
in the characteristic pendentive Arab style (illustration 73). This
ornamental portal is immediately opposite the entrance to the
street by which later on, turning sharply to the right, we
descend another steep and winding staircase in the Tyropceon
Valley on our way to the Jews' Wailing Place. Illustrations
74 and 75 will give an idea of the general features of the
fronts of ancient Oriental houses in the same street. It will
be noticed that they are constructed of massive stones of
different colours, and in some cases have very elaborately
carved Arabesque tracery on the outer walls (illustration 76)
and stalactite-like ornaments over the doors or windows (illus-
tration 77). The portal of the "Medresset et Tunguzieh," or
College of the Emir Tunguz, which is situated at the very,
end of David Street, at the eastern extremity of the more
northerly of the two great causeways which in our Lord's
Day crossed the Tyropceon, from the Temple-hill to Mount
Zion, furnishes a very fine example of pendentive or stalactite
ornamentation (illustration 78).

This special building, which is now used as the "Mehkemeh,"
or court where the Cadi sits, occupies the site of the council
chamber of the Sanhedrin, which was situated at the Temple
gate called "Shallecheth" and also "Coponius." There were
indeed other chambers where the great Jewish tribunal sat,
within the Temple precincts, but as they seem to have been
situated in those parts of the sacred enclosure which Gentiles
were not allowed to tread, we may justly suppose that it was in
the council chamber that stood where the Mehkemeh now is
that St. Paul was brought under the protection of Roman sol-
diers, and made the memorable defence of which we have an
account in Acts xxiii.

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Just outside, and close to the portal of the .Tunguzieh
College, is a very handsome sixteenth century fountain, which,
however, seems to have been constructed out of much older
material, some of which appears to be mediaeval and some older.
A picture of this fountain will be found on page 41 of the
"Jewish Missionary Intelligence" for 1890. There is another on

(74) Saracenic Building in David Street.

page 28 of the same magazine for February, 1908. The archi-
tectural rose ornament seen above the Arabic inscription of
Solomon the Magnificent (A.D. 1520 — 60), probably at one time
adorned some Crusading church, whilst the highly decorated
trough was in all probability at one time a sarcophagus in some
rock-hewn sepulchre of the Herodian period. There are several

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such fountains in Jerusalem, both inside and outside the Temple-
precincts, and though in general form they are similar, yet this
one is by far the handsomest. The water which supplies these
fountains comes all the way from Solomon's Pools, through a
four-inch iron pipe which was laid a few years ago. Before
that time the water came through an aqueduct, which was very

(75) Another Saracenic Building.

frequently out of repair, but which delivered the water through
two branches, one supplying the northern part of the Haram
and the other the southern, as the present pipe still does.

A few yards to the east of this fountain is a curious and
domed little structure, through which one could get to the

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aqueduct whenever it needed repairs. When standing in the
open space in front of the fountain we happen to be just
about the famous "Wilson's Arch," as the first vaulted link in
the great northernmost of the two causeways, which in our
Lord's time joined the Temple-hill to Zion, is named. The

(76) Arabesques on Saracenic Building.

whole of this causeway still exists entire, but is so hidden by
houses built upon it and also against its sides, that it is difficult
to realize its existence. Forty years ago it was still possible
to get under this ancient and gigantic bridge, but now it cannot
be done because the local authorities had the access walled up.

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To the west of Wilson's Arch the causeway is constructed of
a series of remarkable vaults built alongside others, and in some
cases over some at a lower level. They end in a noteworthy
vaulted passage which was intended to facilitate the bringing of
troops into the Temple enclosure from the great citadel near the
Jaffa Gate, which is fully described in the publications of the
Palestine Exploration Fund. There are, in fact, two ancient
twin viaducts running side by side, and the combined widths of
which exceed that of Wilson's Arch, of which they form the
continuation, by 18 inches. "The southern of these twin via-
ducts is broken in its continuity to the west by a large . .
rectangular vaulted chamber of ancient construction, with a
column or pedestal sticking up from the centre." I mention
this curious chamber which General Sir Charles Warren calls
"the Masonic Hall," from some circumstances connected with
its discovery. Dr. Russell Forbes tries, in his work entitled
"The Holy City Jerusalem," page 33, to identify this undoubtedly
exceedingly remarkable apartment, with that in which (accord-
ing to the account by Philostorgius (vii. 14) of the discovery
of the Tomb of David, etc. during the reign of the Emperor
Julian), there was found also at the same time, and lying upon
a pedestal wrapped in a cloth, a manuscript of the Gospel of
St. John.

It is not the object of the writer of these "Walks" to enter
into any controversy, but as he has been more than once
questioned by tourists about this very matter, he must seize this
opportunity to point out that Sir C. Warren, on whose staff he
was employed when the chamber was discovered, did not "find
an ancient sepulchre" situated underneath "the Masonic Hall";
for details concerning which I must refer the reader to the
description given in the P.E.F. "Recovery of Jerusalem," pages
87 — 89. The present entrance to the Temple-area, standing at
the eastern end of the causeway, occupies the site of an old
Temple gate. We now retrace our steps in order to reach again
the entrance to the street of stairs already mentioned, as leading
down from the southern side of David Street into the Tyropceon
and the different interesting spots there situated.

CHAPTER XV.

JETRACING our steps as far as the portal of the
Saracenic building, on the site of the Crusading
Church of St. Giles, we turn to the left, and de-
scend by a crooked and slippery street of stairs into
the low-lying quarter of the town occupying the
Tyropceon Valley south of David Street, and west
of the Temple-area. This quarter of the city is popularly known
as "Harat el Magharibeh, or street of the Western Arabs,"
because it is inhabited by Moslems whose fathers, if not they
themselves, originally immigrated into the country from North
Africa. They may easily be distinguished from others by the
white burnoose, or hooded surplice-like cloak which they wear
over their other garments. They are mostly tall, well-formed
men, with spare wiry frames, and keen fierce-looking features.
Many of them are the descendants of the refugees who came
over from Algiers about the middle of last century, when the
brave and chivalrous 'Abd el Kader with many of his gallant
followers went into exile.

The houses in this depression are all low, one-storied and
poorly-built. The streets by which we reach the open space in
front of the Jews' Wailing Place are very narrow and filthy.
Crowds of Jewish and other beggars squat on the sides of the
thoroughfare, and though many of them are blind and crippled,
yet I cannot recommend the visitor to give any alms here,
because one's doing so would be the signal for the whole swarm
to beset and pester the good-natured philanthropist to such an
extent that he will repent his ever having evinced a desire to
help any.

The Wailing Place has been so often described by others that
it seems almost a waste of time to say much about it. In the
lower part of the sixty feet high wall are several courses of great
stones of the Herodian period in a fine state of preservation,
and above them are several courses of large stones of later
Roman work, with yet others of more recent date, higher up.
Between these stones we notice growing at different heights,
bushes of the caper-plant (capparis spinosa) which some people,
on apparently insufficient grounds, have identified as "the hyssop

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which springeth out of the wall." As this is not the place to
discuss this subject, I would refer such of my readers as may
be interested in it, to Dr. Post's masterly article in Hastings'
"Dictionary of the Bible." The total length of the Wailing Place
is roughly speaking fifty feet, measuring from the southern wall

(77) Stalactite Ornaments outside Windows.

of the Mehkemeh, or Cadi's Tribunal-hall. The magnificent
drafted Greek masonry of which the lower courses of the wall,
as now visible, are formed, are attributed by universal consent
amongst those who are authorities on such subjects, to Herod
the Great. The courses, as will be seen (illustration 79) are
about four feet high.

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In the same wall, about thirty feet from the present southern
end of the Wailing Place, and two hundred and seventy feet
from the south-western angle of the Temple enclosure, there was
visible till about twenty-five years ago, and inside one of the low
houses, the enormous lintel of one of the four gates by which
the Temple used to be approached from the west. The lintel
itself was apparently first prominently brought into notice
about the middle of last century, by Dr. Barclay, of the United
States, in his "City of the Great King," and was thoroughly
examined by Sir Charles Warren, whose account in the "Re-
covery of Jerusalem," pp. no — 117, I am using as reference.
It is about 24 feet 8 inches long, and excavations reveal the fact
that the gate itself, which still exists, buried in debris, is about
28 feet 9 inches high, measuring from the bottom of the lintel,
to the top of the sill or threshold.

During the excavations at this place, and at the time when
the writer of these "Walks" was an interpreter on Sir Charles
Warren's staff, "the Sanctuary wall was bared to a depth of
78 feet 6 inches from the bottom of the lintel" above men-
tioned "to the rock." It was then discovered that the massive
drafted masonry, of which only a few courses are now seen at
the Wailing Place, reach right down to the rock. "There are
twenty-six courses in all, twenty-two below the lintel, two on a
level with the lintel, and two above it. These two latter courses
do not now exist immediately above the lintel, but can be seen a
little further to the north at the Wailing Place. Above these
again, are four courses of squared stones, without drafts, except
in a portion of the fourth and lower course, at the farther end,
near the Hall of Justice, where drafts are to be seen."

The great stones at the Wailing Place are, as the illustration
shews, very much worn and damaged. In the crevices between
them we notice a number of iron nails, which have been left
there by Jews who, from superstitious motives, wished to leave
as mementoes of their visit, "a nail in" God's "holy place"
(Ezra ix. 8). Some of these nails are shewn in the illustration
in the horizontal line just above the lowest course, and under
the stone in front of which the first figure to the right is
standing. Illustration 79 looks northward toward the Mehkemeh;
and illustrations 80 and 81 are views from the windows of the
same, which can be obtained only when the intervening trees
(seen in illustration 79) are leafless. The little door in the
background, in front of which a crowd of Jews is seen, gives
admission to a garden enclosure, where the continuation of

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the great wall is visible. This garden for some years past,
has been opened by its owners, for a compensation, of course,
to such Israelites as cannot find standing-room in the other
open space, and are able and willing to pay for the use of a
quiet corner.

(78) Portal of Medresset et Tunguzieh.

The great lintel is no longer visible, as, in order to discourage
the visits of travellers, it has, for about twenty years past,
been purposely covered over with plaster. It has, however,
been identified inside the Temple-area, with "the upper part of
a magnificent portal, the upper portion of which consists of a

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single stone" above "20 feet long," still visible in the subter-
ranean Mosque of El Borak, which is at present closed against
Christian visitors, but has been, in former years, several times
examined by the Palestine Exploration officers, and was rightly
believed by Ali Bey, who discovered it in 1807 (just a century
ago) to have been one of the gates of the Temple. ("Travels"
vol. ii. p. 226, compared with the plan and explanation prefixed
to vol. i., as referred to in Williams' "Holy City" ii../ 39).

A great cistern, immediately east of this ancient gateway, and
in continuation of the same, has been recognized by competent
authorities as the ancient gate-passage belonging to this approach
to the Sanctuary. The excavations above referred to also

(79) The Jews' Wailing Place.

shewed "that the road to this gate from the Tyropceon Valley
may have been by means of a causeway, raised 46 feet above
the rock. Whether it may have been solid or supported on
arches is not apparent."

On all days of the week Jews may be found at their devotions
on this spot. It is, however, on Friday afternoons and the eves
of fast or feast days, that they assemble here in great numbers.
Here, bowed in the dust they may at least weep undisturbed
over the fallen glory of their race; and bedew with their tears
the soil which so many thousands of their forefathers once
moistened with their blood. It is often said that this custom
is a mere hypocritical formality; but this is a harsh judgment.

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Though with many it may have become part of a trade to pray
at this place for people in other parts of the world who send
money to be prayed for, yet doubtless, in the case specially of
newcomers or visitors to the Holy Land, the grief of the
mourners is the result of genuine and heartfelt emotion.

The custom is of ancient origin. After the futile insurrection
under Bar Cochab had been suppressed in a deluge of blood,
A.D. 135, the Jews were excluded from the city; and it was not
till the fourth century that they were permitted to look upon

(80) Wailing Place as seen from the Mehkemeh.

Jerusalem from the neighbouring hills (Robinson's "Biblical
Researches," i. 23). St. Jerome, commenting on Zephaniah i. 15,
relates that in his day (A.D. 410) they were obliged to purchase
from the Roman soldiers the privilege of visiting the city once a
year, on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple (the
gth of Ab), in order to wail over its ruins; and Benjamin of
Tudela, who came to Jerusalem in the i2th century, mentions
the custom.

105

CHAPTER XVI.

HAVE succeeded in obtaining photographs of the
Bab es Silsileh from the west (illustrations 82, 83
and 84), and add some remarks about this gateway.
It is called Bab es Silsileh, or "Gate of the
Chain," from the tradition that a "Melik en Namsa,"
or "King of the Austrians," was put to death here
many centuries ago, by being hanged with a chain which was

(81) Wailing Place from the Mehkemeh.

long preserved in memory of the event, but which has now
disappeared.

However, leaving this worthless fable out of account, this
Saracenic gateway, erected in the early part of the isth century,

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and adorned with marble capitals and colonettes from Christian
Churches, is noteworthy for several reasons. I have already
remarked that in site it is, with great likelihood, believed
to occupy the position where, at the eastern end of the great
causewaj* terminating in Wilson's Arch, the ancient Temple
Gateway "Shallecheth," or "Coponius," once stood. Besides
this, it perpetuates what was a special feature of all the Temple
gates, — its being double. There were four such gates in the

(82) Bab es Silsileh.,

western wall of the great enclosure, but though their exact
positions are known, their remains are at present inaccessible
to Christians; and so, before describing Robinson's Arch in the
ancient "Millo," or "filled up," or "Causeway" quarter of the city
(both renderings are equally correct and appropriate), it is inter-
esting to note that in our Lord's time, and before that, it was
always customary to use special respect and ceremonial observ-
ance in approaching the Sanctuary. Thus one never, even

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though residing in a higher quarter of the city than was the
Temple-hill, spoke of "going down" but of "going up" to the
Sanctuary.

This usage may be traced back to the time of Israel's sojourn
in the wilderness, when, though the .camp formed a great square
with three tribes pitching their tents on each of the four sides
having the Tabernacle in the centre of a great empty space ifi

(83) Bab es Silsileh.

the middle, and not, in a physical sense higher in level to the
other tents, the dignity associated with the place as the abode
of Deity caused the approach of His worshippers thereto to be
thought of as an "ascent." Thus we read in Numbers xvi. 12,
that when Moses "sent to call Dathan and Abiram" they said
"We will not come up." This idea of the superiority in dignity
of the Sanctuary should be borne in mind, as it supplies a key

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to .several Scripture passages which would otherwise be, as
indeed they have been, misunderstood. Further, it was a rule
that "No one was to come to the Temple except for strictly
religious purposes, either to make the Temple mound a place
of thoroughfare, or to use it to shorten the road. Ordinarily the
worshippers were to enter by the right and to withdraw by the
left, avoiding both the direction and the gate by which they
had come." Therefore, there would have been two different
streams of people, each going in the opposite direction from
the other through the right and left hand portals. "But mourn-
ers, and those under ecclesiastical discipline, were to do the

(84) Bab es Silsileh.

reveise, so as to meet the stream of approaching worshippers,
who might address to them either words of sympathy ('He who
dwelleth in this house grant thee comfort'), or else of admonition
('He who dwelleth in this house put it into thy mind to give
heed to those who would restore thee again')" (Edersheim, "The
Temple," chap, iii.) In fact, the directions given by our Lord
to His disciples, when He sent them forth without money in
their purses, without scrip, staves, etc. (St. Matt.' x. 9 — 10; St.
Mark vi. 8; St. Luke ix. 3) were, as is shewn clearly in Light-
foot's "Temple Services," chap, x., identical with rules to be
observed by worshippers approaching the Sanctuary, and the

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lesson which would suggest itself to the disciples would natur-
ally be that their missionary journey was to be carried out in the
same spirit in which their prayers in the House of God ought
to be.

Before leaving this gateway, we notice the ancient paving-
stones of the Roman period, seen just across the thresholds
of the portals, and inside the Temple enclosure. There are
about twenty, very much worn and exactly like similar paving-
stones of the same period found in other parts of the city.
Here they are specially interesting for two reasons, namely: —
first, our Lord's feet may have trod on this very pavement,

(85) Robinson's Arch Restored.

and, secondly, their being inside supplies a valuable indication
as to the level of the outer Temple-court at this point.

Leaving the Wailing Place, and passing through other narrow
lanes, we reach an open space planted in part with cactus or
prickly pear (Opuntia vulgaris), and partly used as gardens for
the cultivation of gourds and cauliflowers. This spot, in New
Testament times, was occupied by the Xystus, the southern of
the two bridges leading across the Tyroposon from the Temple
hill to the traditional Zion; and Herod's hippodrome. The
remains of the first and last named of these structures are

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invisible, being probably hidden under the immense accumu-
lation of rubbish which now fills up the valley.

Of the bridge a remarkable relic survives in the so-called
"Robinson's Arch," which is one of the most interesting remains
of antiquity still extant, and for the discovery and identification
of which we are indebted to the author of that standard work
on Palestine, the "Biblical Researches"; who, in 1838, noticed
in the western wall of the Temple-area, and at a distance of 39
feet from the south-west angle, three courses of huge stones
projecting from the wall and forming the segment and spring of

(86) View Looking North up the Tyropceon.

an arch, the span of which when entire was, as shewn by Sir
Charles Warren's excavations, "a trifle over 41 feet 6 inches."

The distance from the wall across the valley to the precipitous
side of Zion where the Palace of the Asmoneans once stood, on
the eastern verge of the present Jewish quarter, was 350 feet,
which was the approximate length of the ancient bridge. Il-
lustration 85 shows the Asmonean Palace on the left, and the
position of the Temple on the right.

In the next illustration (86) is seen a view looking northward
up the Tyropoeon valley at the present day, from the same
point of view as that of the restored viaduct, and shewing, in
the background, the modern buildings masking the northern
and still extant causeway ending in Wilson's Arch. Illustration
84 is a view of the modern buildings on the site of the As-

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monean Palace, and showing, amongst the rocks on which
they are perched, the entrance to an ancient tunnel through
which the aqueduct from the Pools of Solomon was led around
the base of the traditional Zion to the Temple. The entrance
to the said tunnel is the subject of illustration 88, whilst
Robinson's Arch is shewn in illustration 89. For details con-
cerning this stupendous specimen of ancient engineering I
must refer the reader to the publications of the Palestine
Exploration Fund.

All authorities are pretty well agreed that the portion of the
western wall of the Temple-area from Wilson's Arch to the S.W.
angle, and the southern from the S.W. angle to the double gate,
is of the Herodian period. The spring of Robinson's Arch,

(87) Buildings on the Site of the Asmonean Palace.

however, belongs possibly to an older structure. Already twenty
years before Herod was made king we find the bridge definitely
mentioned by Josephus ("Wars," i. 7, 2). During the siege by
Pompey the adherents of Aristobulus are represented as re-
treating from Zion into the Temple, and breaking down the
bridge behind them. The same historian also tells us that the
house of the Asmonean family was situated above the Xystus,
opposite the Temple, and where a bridge connected the Temple
with the Xystus. ("Wars," ii. 16). The said bridge was, later
on, rebuilt by Herod, for in another passage of the same
history we are told of Titus standing on the western side of
the outer court of the Temple, there being a gate in that quarter

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beyond the Xystus, and a bridge which connected the upper
town with the Temple. ("Wars," v'i. 6, 2).

It seems certain, therefore, that we have here the remains
of the structure so often and so clearly described by the
historian. Sir Charles Warren's excavations consisted of a
series of shafts and mining galleries, sunk in a line across the
valley from west to east in order to determine, in the first place,
the line of the original rock or valley-bed, and next, in order
if possible, to discover remains of the bridge. The enterprise

(88) Entrance to the Tunnel.

was successful. Not only the remains of a colonnade which
probably had formed part of the Xystus, but also the pier of the
great arch, and of another further west, were found. "Stretching
from the base of the great pier to the sanctuary wall is a pave-
ment, falling slightly to the east, and on this were found the
fallen arch-stones and debris of Robinson's Arch." Twenty-three
feet below the pavement there was found rock, "and following
it up to east," two fallen voussoirs, or arch-stones, of a yet
older bridge than Robinson's Arch, "jammed in over a great

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rock-cut canal running from north to south, 12 feet deep, and 4
feet wide .... which had probably been in use before the
sanctuary wall at this point had been built. .... The bottom

(89) Robinson's Arch as at Present.

of this canal is 74 feet below the spring of Robinson's Arch, and
107 feet below the level of the old roadway." (See "Recovery
of Jerusalem," pp. 94 — in). The width of the viaduct was
50 feet.

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CHAPTER XVII.

|N the same way that a geologist is able, by the study
of the section of a quarry, to draw inferences as to
the history of the earth's crust, so in like manner
it is possible from a study of the different kinds of
masonry lying over or- beside each other in different
parts of the walls of the city, or of the Temple-area,
to tell the dates of various parts of those structures and obtain

(90) Masonry of Various Periods.

other valuable results. Here, for instance, at Robinson's Arch,
and the south-western angle of the Temple enclosure, we have
several sorts of masonry contiguous to each other. In illus-
tration 90 we have some of these. In the lower left-hand corner,
behind the leafless branches of a tree, are the upper stones of
Robinson's Arch-spring, twenty-five feet long, of Herodian times,
and possibly earlier. Next above it, on the right, is early Arab
masonry, over which come the bossed stones of the Templars*
buildings, whilst to the left again, and over the great Arch-
spiing, we have the small and insignificant stones of the early

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part of last century. Round the corner, at the south-western
angle, the masonry is different from any of these, and consists
of massive cubical stones, measuring about three or four feet, in
length and breadth, built to a considerable height, each course
receding backward an inch or so, in pyramid-fashion, and dating
apparently to late Roman or Byzantine times. They reach from
the south-western angle as far as the heap of ruins, just south of
the Mosque el Aksa, seen to the right of illustration 91, and all
along and above them stretch the Templars' buildings referred
to above, and hiving a row of large windows.

The depth of rubbish in this part of the city is very great.

(91) South Wall of Temple Enclosure.

Just underneath the third window, counting to the right from the
south-western angle it has been found to be ninety feet. Below
the present surface the great Herodian stones stretch in complete
courses from the south-western angle eastward as far as the
Double Gate, underneath the Aksa; and northward as far as
Wilson's Arch. As they quite differ from the more ancient
masonry which is found to the east of the Double Gate, and as
far as the south-eastern angle of the Haram enclosure, and also
from that to the north of Wilson's Arch, it is clear that they are
of later date. The excavations and investigations have proved
that, though the portion indicated, i.e., from Wilson's Arch

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northward to the corner, and thence to the Double Gate, is
Herodian, and was built across the Tyropceon at this point,
yet that during the period between the death of Solomon, B.C.
976, and up to the commencement of the Herodian period, B.C.
17, it was not included within the Temple precincts. The
presence of the two great viaducts, and the enormous amount of
debris found here, could not be more suitably described than by
the name "Millo," which has been rendered into English by
"The filling up," or "The causeway," which at the present day
extends southward as far as the southern city wall east of the
Dung Gate, and eastward from the foot of Zion to the city wall,
bounding the open space called Hakurat el Khatuniyeh on the

(92) A View of Millo.

east. If illustrations 92 and 93 be taken together they form a
panorama which includes the whole of this part of the city,
and embraces, on the left of illustration 92, the part from the
minaret above Bab es Silsileh as far as Robinson's Arch. In
illustration 93 is the remainder from the latter point to the
south-eastern corner of the "Hakurat." The former view is
looking toward the Dome of the Rock, and the latter toward
Olivet, whilst illustration 94, is taken from the same point, viz.,
the brow of Zion, looking over the southern city wall, with its
crenellations on top and narrow walks along its inside, and
over the roof of the small white tower at the Dung Gate
(where a figure is seen stooping and looking over the battle-

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ments), toward Siloam and the Mount of Corruption with a
Benedictine monastery on its top.

The large illustration (95) is a view of 'the present south wall
of the city and of Millo, shewing its relation to the Mosque el
Aksa and the southern wall of the Temple enclosure outside the
city. The huge stones seen in the lower courses of the south
"Millo" wall are old material re-used — one of them, which is
only half-dressed, and has a boss bulging from it (illustration
96), is called "Hajar el Hublah," or "stone of the pregnant one."
A similar legend is also told concerning the famous great
stone in the quarry at Baalbek, that during the time for forty

(93) Another View of Millo.

years after Solomon's death, the Jan, unaware of his decease,
were toiling upon the construction of his stupendous buildings,
and a female Jin was at work on this stone when news came of
the King's death, and so she left off work and her task remained
unfinished. .Another legend is that the stone here shewn was
placed in position by the Virgin some time before she gave birth
to our Saviour. In the outer angle formed by the eastern wall
of the Hakurat el Khatuniyeh, the excavations carried on by
Dr. Bliss in 1897 revealed the existence of very ancient rock-cut
dwellings (see Palestine Exploration Fund "Quarterly Statement"
for that year, page 267). These have been covered up again,
but similar ones have been found on the eastern slope of Zion,
within the space once included in the City of David, and may

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have been used by the ancient Jebusites. I am able, thanks to
Mr. G. E. Franklin, who kindly lent me his negatives of these
ancient remains, to give illustrations 97 and 98, which are
views of the entrances to some of them. Illustration 99 is a
view taken just outside the Dung Gate, by which we now leave
the city for a while, looking downward toward Siloam. The
grove of olive trees in the dark foreground is on the ridge of
Ophel, and marks the place where, according to a learned and
strange theory, about twenty years old, but upheld by many
scholars, Zion, the City of David, once stood. Let me state
their arguments briefly but fairly, as well as the objections to
the same.

(94) View fro.m the Brow of Zion.

— -•' . ' .;##

1. Zion was an important fortress, and therefore must have
been close to the Gihon spring, the only perennial fountain in
the neighbourhood. A fortress must have a good water-supply.

2. Most authorities are agreed in identifying the present "Vir-
gin's Fount," at the eastern foot of Ophel with Gihon, and the
famous subterranean tunnel from the "Virgin's Fount" to the
Pool of Siloam with "the conduit" made by Hezekiah when he
"stopped the upper spring of the waters (R.V.) and brought
them straight down on the west side of the City of David"
(2 Chron. xxxii. 30).- As Gihon (Virgin's Fount) is east of
Ophel, and the Pool of Siloam on the west of the ridge, it
follows conclusively that "the City of David" must have been
situated on Ophel.

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3. Whenever we read of the Kings of Judah going to the
Temple, they are always spoken of as "going up" to the
sanctuary. Thus Solomon "brought up" the ark. As Ophel
was the only hill-top lower than Moriah, it follows that the
city of David must have been on Ophel.

In answer to these arguments, which at first sight seem very
plausible and even strong, there are the following objections: —

i. Zion was not near the water. It had no fountain to supply
it. The name itself means "Waterless." Like several other

(95) South Wall of the City and Millo.

strongholds in Palestine, the castles at Banias, Kula'at el Eshkif,
Rabbath Ammon, etc., the citadel was on a high hill somewhat
distant from the spring. It depended for its principal water-
supply on the ancient rock-hewn cisterns with which the site
of the traditional Zion is still honeycombed. A few years ago
such an ancient Jebusite cistern was quite unexpectedly dis-
covered at the London Jews' Society's boys' school, close to
Christ Church. It had been hidden for centuries under a depth
of forty feet of rubbish. It seems absurd to argue that a place
named "the Waterless," should be close to a fountain.

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2. As regards the argument founded on 2 Chron. xxxii. 30,
there is no doubt whatever that the passage is vague and
ambiguous, and that the words, which in both the authorised
and Revised Versions are rendered "the west side of the city
of David," may, as is pointed out in the article on "Jerusalem,"
in Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible," be equally well translated,
"straight down westwards to the City of David," and this would
strengthen instead of weaken the claims of the south-western
hill or the traditional Zion. It is clear, therefore, that no
conclusive argument can be built on this passage.

3. That the post-Davidic Kings should be said "to go up"

(96) "Hajar el Hablah" in South- Wall.

whenever they went to the Temple is natural, because, as is
generally allowed, the palace was south of the sanctuary, and
lower than it, in the space between the Double Gate and the
south-eastern angle of the present Haram enclosure, somewhere
near where the celebrated vaults called "Solomon's Stables"
now are. But when Solomon "brought up the ark of the
covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion,"
to the Temple, which actually stood on lower ground, we must
remember what has already been said in our notes on Bab es
Silsileh, about the use of the expression "going up" as a term
of dignity for the approach to the House of God

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Thus all the chief arguments in favour of the Ophel site
for Zioii are answered, and others might be adduced which
favour the traditional site.

(97) Entrances to Rock Dwellings.

(98) Entrances to Rock Dwellings.
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CHAPTER XVIII.

|ROM the Dung Gate a road leads southward down
the western side of the Tyropceon Valley, outside
the city walls, to the Pool of Siloam. The top of
the minaret (illustration 100), close to the pool,
is in full view from the point where the above-
mentioned road is crossed by another coming down
along the city wall from the Zion Gate, situated one hundred and
forty feet above us, and fifteen hundred distant to the west.

(99) View from the Modern Dung Gate.

Beyond the minaret, we notice the large enclosure at the mouth
of the Tyropceon, marking the lower pool of Siloam, commonly
called Birket el Hamra. The wall of the city in the time of the
Jewish kings ran along the top of the massive buttressed dam,
closing the valley mouth on the eastern side of this pool. The
mulberry-tree — as tradition pretends, growing on the spot where
Isaiah met with his death, by being sawn asunder by command
of Manasseh — stands on a stone platform at the S.E. angle of

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the pool. The Mount of Corruption, with the houses of the
Yemenite settlement at Siloam clinging to its steep sides; and
beyond, the Ke^dron valley winding away amongst the hills
to the S.E. toward the ancient desert monasteries of St. Theo-
dosius (Deir Ed Doseh) and Mar Saba, close in the landscape.

We turn to the left and follow the road leading eastward
for about five hundred feet along the city wall, which here forms

(100) Pool of Siloam.

the (Southern rampart of the Millo quarter. This wall now
turns northward, for two hundred feet to the spot where, some
thirty years ago, might have been noticed traces of a walled-up
gateway of Crusading times, and called, from its being first
observed by a traveller of that name, "Richardson's Gate."
When this part of the wall was rebuilt, all exterior traces of
this gateway disappeared, but the great passage-way, with lofty

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groined roof, still exists inside the town underneath the old
ruins, already mentioned as having been part of the Templars'
buildings south of the Aksa, and at the north-eastern corner
of the present Hakurat el Khatuniyeh. A few steps further
east, we round two more corners and reach the spot where
the city wall abuts on to the southern wall of the Temple en-
closure, running up against the ancient gate-post between the

(101) Head of Statue of Hadrian.

closed portals of the western Huldah or double gateway. Only
part of the eastern part of the gate is visible from without, as
a great heap of debris is piled against it in the corner. Just
above the lintel (under which is another archway with carvings,
supposed to be of the time of Julian the Apostate, A.D. 363),
we notice a stone with some letters on it. They stand on their
heads and belong to the well-known inscription which is con-

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jectured to have formed part of the pedestal of the statue of
Hadrian, that was seen both by the Bordeaux pilgrim (A.D. 333)
and St. Jerome (A.D. 410), standing close to another of Jupiter
of the Capitol, and on the site of the Holy of Holies — (Hierony-
mus "Comment, ad Isaiae"), "Hadriani statua et Jovis idolum
collocatum est." The inscription reads —

TITO AEL
HADRIANO
ANTONINO.

AVG PIO,

PP. PONTIF AUGVR
D.D.

"To Titus Aelius Hadrianus, Antoninus Augustus Pius, Father of
the Fatherland, Pontiff, Augur, decreed by the Senate." Illus-
tration IOT shews a magnificent marble head which belonged
to a life-size statue, supposed to be the very image of Hadrian
in question. This interesting relic was discovered in 1873, and
came into the possession of a now deceased acquaintance, a
Russian ecclesiastic sometime resident at Jerusalem. It is now
supposed to be at Sst. Petersburg.

Leaving this fascinating spot we proceed eastward for about
two hundred feet and reach the eastern Huldah Gate, also walled
up. Stretching between it and the Double Gate we notice the
famous string course of massive stones, each six feet high,
double that of the other ancient stones. It extends, with inter-
ruptions, beyond the eastern Huldah to the end of the south wall
of the Temple enclosure, and it has been discovered that the
architects who laid it must have been men of great technical
skill. When the Temple wall along this side was free from the
debris which have since accumulated against it, this gigantic
course passed from end to end for 600 feet, touching, near its
centre, the crest of the hill which sloped downward, eastward
and westward. Had the great course been laid perfectly level,
it would, by an optical illusion, due to its contiguity to the curve
of the hill, have appeared bent downward at either end. In order
to obviate this, the ancient master builders actually laid the
course with a slight upward curve sufficient to correct the
error.

The huge corner-stone at the end of this course, seen at the
south-eastern angle of the Haram area, used in mediaeval times
to be pointed out as that referred to in Psalm cxviii. 22, and
alluded to by our Lord in St. Matt. xxi. 42, as "the stone which

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the builders refused." It is clearly seen in illustration 102,
being the third course above the head of the standing figure.
The great stones in this picture tower above the ground to the

(102) Ancient Masonry at S.E. Angle of Temple.

height of 75 feet, their limit upward being marked by the pro-
jection seen near the upper right hand corner. The eastern
Huldah Gate was originally a double gate like the western, but
was altered in the late Roman period and turned into a triple
gateway, with three parallel passages leading toward the upper

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levels (illustration 103). Yet further east we reach "the Single
Gate," a Crusading one (illustration 104), which, when open,
gave access to the remarkable subterranean vaults, popularly
called "Solomon's Stables" (illustration 105), which exist at this
point just inside the angle formed by the southern and eastern
walls of the Temple-area. These were substructions intended to
support the great platform at this point, and were called "Sol-
omon's Stables," because the Templars used to keep their
animals here. As we wander through the forest of square

(103) Triple, or Eastern Huldah Gate.

columns, we notice that many of them are perforated at the
corners, in order to receive "tether ropes." Here and there are
remains of mangers. It is not unlikely that the royal stables
during the period of the Jewish monarchy may have been here-
abouts, though at a lower level. During his excavations, Sir
Charles Warren discovered, about twenty feet below the sill of
the Single Gate a passage running at a lower level, between the
piers which support the vaults above. It is built of magnificently
dressed stones, and was traced northward for sixty feet.

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CHAPTER XIX.

|N one corner of the present substructions may still be
seen remains of the original underground Herodian
vaults, whilst in the south-eastern angle there
exist the lower courses of a great tower which stood
at this spot, and the top of which is identified witb
"the pinnacle of the Temple" on which our Lord was
placed by the Tempter (St. Matt. iv. 5), and also, and by a very
ancient tradition, with that from which St. James the Less was

(104) Single Gate near S.E. Angle.

cast by his persecutors. Not being killed by the fall, a fuller,
who was amongst them, struck him on the head with his club
and thus put an end to his sufferings. It is a remarkable fact,
that scarcely one hundred yards from this spot, and two hundred
feet south of the Triple Gate, a cave filled up with fuller's vats
was discovered during Sir C. Warren's excavations. As we
wander about amongst the many dim, mysterious and deserted
aisles grouped side by side inside the south-eastern angle, we
notice that materials from other buildings have been freely used

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for repairs. In one place is a stone richly carved with the classic
egg and dart pattern; in another, the huge lintel of an ancient
gateway set on end, and furnished with sockets for bolts, serves
to form part of a restored pier ; whilst in an obscure corner is
a Herodian fragment elaborately ornamented with vine leaves,
grapes, and trellis work, like that on the ceiling of the vestibule
of the Double Gate, and evidently a relic of the Temple of our
Lord's time. It is well known that underground passages and
great cisterns exist in different parts of this old world souterrain,
but we must not weary the reader by trying to describe them.

Passing the Single Gate, we come to the south-eastefrn
corner of the Temple enclosure, about one hundred feet

(105) Solomon's Stables.

distant (illustration 104). The depth of debris at this point,
however, has been ascertained to be fully 80 feet, and the grand
old masonry reaches all the way down, founded on the rock.
There still exists therefore at this place a portion one hundred
and fifty feet high of the ancient structure. The foundation
stone is let into the rock. It was on the stones of the lower
courses that in 1868 were found old Phoenician mason-marks,
some cut into the stone and others painted on it, the discovery
of which roused such great interest at the time. Starting from
this south-eastern angle and running southward was discovered
the great Wall of Ophel, fortified with towers and erected by
the ancient kings of Judah. Somewhere here was probably the
"Horse Gate" of ancient Jerusalem.

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Illustration 106 is a view of the eastern side of the ancient
wall, as one looks northward on turning the south-eastern angle.
In the distance, on the sky line, is seen the projecting column
upon which, according to popular Moslem eschatology, Moham-
med will sit on the Day of Judgment. For the grotesque details
connected with this belief see "Tales told in Palestine" (Jennings
and Graham, New York) page 136. As a matter of historical

(106) Looking towards Mohammed's Judgment Seat.

fact I may, however, mention that three or four hundred years
ago when Jerusalem was taken by a Mahdi, who had arisen
amongst the Bedouin east of the Jordan, the leader of the Arabs
took his seat upon this column, and intended to rehearse for
the edification of his followers what would happen at the Day
of Judgment, when he became giddy, as well he might, and
falling headlong, perished. "Mohammed's Seat" is not the
only column built into the eastern wall of the Temple enclosure.

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In our Lord's time, open colonnades ran all along the sides on
the edge of the outer court, and as we walk along, we notice
many of them of porphyry and other beautifully coloured stones
built in with their ends protruding, as shewn in illustration 107,
where we see the ends of single columns here and there, and in
one place a whole row of them above a group of sepulchral
monuments marking the graves of well-to-do Moslem towns-
people. The characteristic mark of such tombs is a cenotaph
with two short upright columns fixed at either end. and little
stone-basins of water for the use of passing birds, and also of
the departed. I have as yet not been able to get any satisfactory

(107) Ends of Columns and Moslem Tombs.

explanation of the symbolical significance of the two upright
columns. The graves of the poor fellahin of Siloam are marked
by a simple circle of stones, on which in many cases
(illustration 108) grows a century-plant or giant aloe (agave
Americana). The use of this plant is decidedly symbolical. In
sound, its name "sebr" is exactly similar to that of the Arabic
word for "patience." It is therefore the dumb expression of the
patient and hopeless resignation of the humble Moslem to the
inexorable fate decreed by Allah. Moslems believe in the Resur-
rection, but I have not found that the tardy blooming of this
remarkable plant several decades after it has been planted, is in
any way connected with thoughts suggestive of a hope after

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death, such as those to which a Christian mind is awakened
by the sight of Olivet in full view, a thousand feet distant, across
the Kedron and beyond Gethsemane.

We are now approaching the Golden Gate. This is so well
known that I need not say much about it. It is a late Byzantine
structure, on the site of a more ancient gateway, possibly that
called "Miphkad" (Nehemiah iii. 31). Illustration 109 shews

(108) A Century-Plant on a Tomb.

its interior. Just before reaching this spot we notice a little
closed Crusading postern in the wall (illustration no). A
cross painted in the centre of a circle of rays on the face
of the mediaeval lintel has survived the weather of eight cen-
turies, and all efforts of the Moslem to deface it. It is just
distinguishable in the photograph. "The bust of Queen
Victoria," seen on the large stone in the second course on the
right, is simply a freak caused by special conditions of light on

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

the weather-worn surface. It is therefore not always distinguish-
able. A closed-up entrance on the eastern side leads one to
conclude that there must be other chambers and vaults in the

(109) Interior of the Golden Gate.

south-eastern angle of the Temple-area, and at a considerably
lower level than that of "Solomon's Stables." Possibly the
original stables may still exist there.

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It is generally acknowledged by competent authorities that
the space just inside, and along the southern wall from the
Double Gate to the south-eastern angle, was at first occupied by
the palatial structures of the successor of David, and the kings
following him, the south wall west of the Double Gate being
Herodian. In New Testament times, the substructions now
called "Solomon's Stables," which bear evident traces of reno-
vation, alteration and repair at subsequent periods, supported

(no) Crusading Postern in the Wall.

the great platform, on which from east to west for a length of
922 feet extended the great Royal Cloister of Herod, with its
three aisles, the middle one broader and loftier, cathedral-like,
their roofs upborne by four rows of great columns, 162 in
number (Josephus' "Antiquities," Bk. xv. chap. xi. 5).

'35

CHAPTER XX.

IHE Golden Gate is a late Roman or Byzantine
structure, concerning the exact date of which there
is still a great deal of uncertainty, for whilst some
authorities are inclined to attribute it to the age
of Hadrian (Robinson's "Biblical Researches," i. p.
296), others think it a work of Constantine, who,
however, does not seem to have built within the Temple-area,

(in) Ancient Fountain at Jerusalem.

in which, as late as the time of St. Jerome (died A.D. 410),
there were still standing the equestrian statue of Hadrian and
an image of Jupiter.* Others, again, attribute the Golden Gate-
way to the time of Justinian (e.g., Professor Hayter Lewis,

* Hieronymus Comment, in Esiam ii. 8, "Ubi quondam erat templum et religio Dei,
ibi Hadriani statua et Jovis idolum collocatum est." Also Comment, in Matt. xxi. 15,
"de Hadriani ecjuestri statua, qua? in ipso Sancto Sanctorum loco usque in presentem
diem stetit."

"Where formerly was the temple and religion of God, there the statue of Hadrian
and the idol of Jupiter is placed." "Of Hadrian's equestrian statue, which to the
present day stands on the very site of the Holy of Holies."

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in his "Holy Places of Jerusalem"), possibly overlooking the
fact that the Persians and Jews who took and sacked Jeru-
salem in A.D. 614 are not likely to have spared a building
like this. Whatever the exact date may be, however, it cannot
be later than the Moslem occupation, A.D. 637, and therefore
we may suppose that it was rebuilt by orders of Heraclius.
He entered Jerusalem in triumph by this gateway eight years
previously, in 629, when he visited the city bearing upon
his shoulders the so-called "wood of the true Cross" which
he had recovered from the Persians. This supposition re-
ceives colour from a curious mediaeval tradition current in
1 102, and preserved by Saewulf. "By this gate the emperor
Heraclius entered Jerusalem when he returned victorious from
Persia, with the cross of our Lord; but the stones first fell down
and closed up the passage, so that the gate became one mass,
until humbling himself at the admonition of an angel, he
descended from his horse, and so the entrance was opened unto
him." (Bohn's "Early Travels in Palestine," p. 40.*) Now, as
the buildings of Justinian were erected about A.D. 527, and the
pilgrim Antoninus of Placentia, who came to Jerusalem about
forty years later, found "what was once the beautiful Gate," in
ruins with the "threshold and posts still standing"f — (Palestine
Pilgrim Text Society's translation of Antoninus Martyr, p. 15) —
it is difficult to believe the present structure to have been built
by Justinian. On the other hand, the great monoliths inside the
gateway, forming respectively the northernmost and southernmost
jambs, are of great antiquity, and probably "the posts" noticed
by Antoninus. They appear to have belonged originally to an

* This visit of Heraclius brought about a dreadful massacre of the Jews. They had
helped the Persians to sack the Holy City and destroy the Christian churches, but when
Heraclius "came to Tiberias the Jews who dwelt ... in that country, came out to
meet him, bearing presents, wishing him good luck, and begging him to grant them
security, which he promised, and set his seal to a written covenant with them.
The monks and people at Jerusalem told him how the Jews had sided with the Per-
sians." . . . and said "Do us a favour and put away all the Jews." . . . Hera-
clius answered, "How can I suffer them to be slain when I have already granted them
security and have sealed a written covenant with them to that end ? Unless I

uphold this covenant I shall be thought by all men to be a liar, a cheat, and a man
unworthy to be trusted, besides the great sin and wickedness whereof I should be guilty
before our Lord Christ." . . . They answered, "The Lord Christ knoweth that their
slaughter will be to thee for a remission of sins, and for an atonement for thy offences
. . . and we will take this sin from thee upon ourselves, and will atone for it for
thee, begging our Lord Jesus Christ not to lay it to your charge. Moreover, in the
week wherein eggs and cheese are eaten — that is, the week before the great fast — we
proclaim a complete fast, . . . with abstinence from eggs and cheese as long as the
Christian religion shall endure . . . abstaining from all flesh and fat ... that it
may be an atonement for that which you have granted to us." So Heraclius consented
to them in this matter, and slew countless numbers of the Jews. (Eutychii .Annales,
Pilg. Text Soc. version, pp. 47—49). The above is an historical association too often
forgotten.

t "Pprtam civitatis (quae cohaeret portae speciosae, quse fuit Templi, cujus liminare et
tribulatio stant) ingressi sumus in sanctam civitatem." Antoninus Martyr — Ugolini Thes-
aurus, tome vii. p. mccxiii.

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ancient Jewish Temple Gate at this point, which is about 1020
feet north of the S.E. angle and, as seems likely, marks the N..W.
angle of the Temple-area in pre-Christian times. Here probably
stood the "Gate Miphkad" (Neh. iii. 31). The name "Golden
Gate" is the result of two mistakes, viz: — first, the supposition
that this richly decorated Byzantine portal must have been the
"Beautiful Gate" mentioned in Acts iii. 2 and 10. Secondly,
the change of the Greek word "Horaia," meaning "beautiful,"
into the Latin "Aurea," meaning "golden."

In Crusading times, as we learn from the "Norman Chron-
icles," this gate was opened only on two occasions every year,

(112) The Golden Gate from the East.

namely on Palm Sunday, and on the feast of the Holy Cross
in September, in commemoration of the visit of Heraclius. On
both these occasions religious processions passed into the city
this way. The Gate of Jehoshaphat, now called St. Stephen's,
served as an eastern outlet from the city at other times.

We noticed in the last chapter the little postern a short dis-
tance south of the Golden Gate. There was also another little
postern, a good deal further south. It has been examined by
the P.E.F. officers and is described in the "Quarterly Statement"
for 1882, p. 169, but is now difficult to identify, as a great quantity

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of rubbish was thrown against it after that date, so that now
scarcely anything but the lintel is visible.

With regard to the familiar "dragoman-tale" that the Moham-
medans keep the Golden Gate walled up, because they fear, if
left open, the Christians will take the city, I would remark
that it does not seem to be of earlier date than the fifteenth
century. Inside the gate chamber, on the south wall, between

(113) The Golden Gate from the West.

the two pilasters, and at the height of about three feet from the
ground, the writer recently noticed traces of ancient square
Hebrew lettering, which seem to have hitherto escaped ob-
servation. We have already given a view of the interior of
the Golden Gate, and now give two illustrations (112 and 113)
of the outside, the smaller one being from a photograph taken
by Miss Blyth.

139

CHAPTER XXI.

JEAVING the walled-up "Golden Gateway," we pro-
ceed northward. The road still passes through the
great Moslem cemetery, which stretches along the
whole eastern side of the city as far as its north-
eastern angle. The only break is where the road
to Gethsemane and Olivet leaves the St. Stephen's
Gate. On Thursdays especially the burial-ground is much
frequented by the Mohammedan women, who come to visit
their dead, and to tell them (whom they, by a flight of imagin-
ation truly Oriental, believe capable of hearing all that is said to

(114) Herodian Tower, with Large Stones.

them, and of taking an interest in domestic matters) all that has
happened in their families since the last visit. As the writer
has frequent occasion to pass this way, he has often had oppor-
tunities of overhearing some sorrowing peasant mother or sister
telling the deceased "how the brother or cousin has been taken
as a conscript; and the tax-gatherer has seized more than his
due; or the black ox has died of the cattle-plague." Moslem
townswomen are often accompanied by some blind sheikh
whom they pay for reciting passages from the Koran for the
edification of the souls of the departed. They also generally

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bring with them bunches of flowers, which they leave on the
graves or tombstones. This custom originated, as the writer
has been informed by a very learned Moslem, in the following
manner: A certain Moslem of wicked life having died could
not find rest in his tomb, but, as was evident to passers-by,
from the groans that proceeded from the grave, was undergoing
great torments. Being at a loss what to do for the departed
soul, his relatives asked the prophet's advice, and his counsel
was that Scripture should be read by the graveside, and flowers
laid on the tomb.

Unless told so, nobody proceeding along the eastern city
wall from the Golden Gate toward that of St. Stephen would

(115) Open Space by the Wall.

dream that he was crossing a deep but now filled-up valley;
yet such is undoubtedly the case, for the excavations carried
on here forty years ago by Sir Charles Warren, have proved
that whilst there are from 30 to 40 feet of debris just outside the
Golden Gate, there are 125 feet of debris at a point 260 feet
further north. From this point the rock rises, till, at the southern
end of the great tower at the north-eastern corner of the
Temple-area, the depth of rubbish is no feet, and at St. Stephen's
Gate there are 20 feet of debris between the present surface and
the rock. In illustration 114 is the great Herodian Tower

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at the north-eastern corner of the Temple-area, clearly shewing
the immense stones (one of which is twenty-one feet long)
still visible above ground up to a height of about thirty feet, to
which we must, with our mind's eye, add the no feet now
covered up at this point, or the 125 feet to the now effaced
valley-bed above referred to.

Instead of continuing our walk to the north-eastern angle
of the city, along the rock-cut trenches of Saladin, which
join on to those on the north wall of the city, we re-enter
the town by the well-known St. Stephen's Gate (illustration

(116) St. Stephen's Gate.

116), called by the Jews "the Lion Gate," because of rude
sculptures that adorn it. For the legends connected with this
gate I must refer the reader to "Tales told in Palestine," p. 19,
or to "Folk-Lore of the Holy Land," p. 94, et.seq. (London:
Duckworth & Co.) Right before us, leading westward, is the
great street ending in the Via Dolorosa, whilst on the left is
an open space (illustration 115) between the city wall and
the huge pool called "Birket Israil," which is now being rapidly
filled up with rubbish. This, in our Lord's time, formed one of
the strongest defences of the Temple precincts on the north,
and till about forty years ago, when the now famous twin-

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pool, close to St. Anne's Church, was re-discovered, it used
to be shewn to tourists as the "Pool of Bethesda." Illus-
tration 115 shews the open space just referred to, with the
highest visible courses of Herodian work at the north-eastern
angle, and on the left, "Bab el Asbat," a name given to
the approach to the Temple-area at this point.

We continue our walk westward, and almost immediately
notice on our right the entrance to the grounds of the recently
restored Crusading Abbey Church of St. Anne, occupying the
site, according to a tradition dating from the fourth century, of

(117) Church of St. Anne and Seminary.

the dwelling of the parents of the Virgin Mary (illustration 117).
Foolish as the legend seems, it has a very interesting origin.
We have on a former occasion visited the interesting Biblical
museum of St. Anne ("Jewish Missionary Intelligence," 1903,
p. 94), where are other things to be noticed on the spot, for
example, a stone weight, one talent (illustration 118).

143

CHAPTER XXII.

HE legend about the Church of St. Anne can be
traced back to the fourth century. It originated in
the same way as the name "Golden Gate," which
was given to the structure so-called, in the misunder-
standing of an older title in a different language.
Such mistakes are very common, and fruitful sources
of mediaeval traditions and legends. We shall meet with yet an-
other such instance when we come to the traditional "House of

(118) A Stone Weight in the Museum.

Veronica," in the Via Dolorosa. In order to explain that of St.
Anne's Church we must turn to the narrative (St. John v. i — 18),
telling of the healing of the impotent man, at the pool called in
Hebrew "Bethesda" (Bethsaida, or Bethzatha), "having five
porches and close to the sheep gate or market." This sheep gate

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was north of the Temple; and besides the great pool "Birket
Israil," noticed in the last chapter, there existed, in the fourth
century, a very remarkable twin-pool, that is, two pools lying
side by side and surrounded by cloisters or colonnades on
the four sides, whilst a fifth, making five porches, came be-
tween the two pools, and staircases led down to the water.

(119) The Eastern Subterranean Twin-Pool.

This pool is in the same valley which, as has been previously
shewn, rises east of Jeremiah's grotto hillock, and opens into
the valley of Jehoshaphat, at a point between the N.E. corner
of the Temple-area and the Golden Gateway. Peter of Sebaste
(A.D. 381), mentions a church in the same place. Other writers

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of mediaeval times speak of the twin-pools as the Piscina
Interior. As time passed on, the fourth century church was
probably destroyed by the Persians (A.D. 614), and, as the
heaps of debris around had encroached upon, and partly filled

(120) Old Crypt in Church of St. Maria.

up the rock-cut pools, it became necessary in the Crusading
period to shorten the latter and roof them over. In order,
however, to preserve the memorial of the five porches, a
church, "St. Maria in Probatica," was erected over one of the
reduced pools, and the crypt of this church was divided into

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five transverse sections, to represent the porches. This church
was in its turn destroyed, and its very existence, as well
as that of the twin-pools, forgotten, till they were re-discovered
forty years ago, during excavations conducted by the French
at the time that the adjacent church of St. Anne, which had
been given to the Emperor Napoleon III. after the Crimean

(121) Another View of the Crypt.

War,* was being restored. "The Sanctuary of the House of
St. Anne," says Professor Clermont Ganneau, in his "Archaeo-
logical Researches," vol. i. p. 119, "built upon the actual site
of Bethesda, has for its origin a play upon the words 'Beth-
esda' and 'Beth Hanna,' both of which mean 'House of Grace.'
The legend guarantees the exactitude of the Gospel tradition
and fixes its exact locality. We have a decisive material proof

* It had, according to Hunter's "History of the War in Syria," a book which I now
have no access to, been offered to England after the bombardment of Acre, in 1840, but
refused.

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

of this, in the marble foot, discovered at St. Anne's itself,
and bearing .... an 'ex voto' in Greek, of 'Pompeia Lucilia,
in gratitude for her cure at the Sheep Pool.' "

On the other hand several scholars, following the sugges-
tions of Dr. Robinson ("Biblical Researches," vol. i* 342), are

(122) The Church of St. Anne.

inclined to identify the Pool of Bethesda with the Virgin's
Fount (the ancient Gihon spring) in the Kedron and close to
Siloam, the reason being that they think that the intermittent
flow of the latter, due probably to the action of a natural
syphon, may have been the troubling of the water alluded to

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

by St. John. No such phenomenon has as yet been noticed in
the waters of the re-discovered twin-pools.

The interior of the eastern of these, both of which are
now underground, is seen in illustration 119. It will be noticed
that the three rectangular masonry piers on the right stand
on the fragments of more ancient and massive circular columns.

(123) Interior of St. Anne's Church.

The wall on the left-hand side is rock, that on the right, as
well as that in the background, masonry.

In illustration 120 is seen a view taken in the ruined crypt
of the church of St. Maria in Probatica, and looking west-
ward. The door-way seen in the background, gives access
to the western of the twin-pools, and the railing on the left,
between two of the transverse arches which divided up the

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crypt into five parts, as above stated, is to keep visitors from
approaching, and damaging by their touch, the remains of
an interesting i2th century fresco-painting on plaster, repre-
senting the angel troubling the water.

Another view, taken from the same spot, is given in illus-
tration 121, but looking in the contrary direction. It shews a
person descending the staircase leading down into the pool
(illustration 119), and above, in the back-ground, the remains of
the semicircular apse of St. Maria in Probatica.

In illustration 122 is a front view of the extremely interesting
and typical Crusading church of St. Anne, which is situated
about thirty yards S.E. of the pools and ruins above mentioned
and illustrated. Just over the doorway in the arched portal,
and behind the coat of arms, there still exists the Arabic inscrip-
tion recording the fact that Saladin turned this church into a
Moslem college or Medresseh, after he had wrested Jerusalem
from the Christians in 1187. He was a wise and sagacious,
as well as a brave monarch, and having other foes of Islam
besides, and more dangerous than the Christians, to contend
with, namely, the various heretical and sectarian parties, such as
the Ismaeliyeh, the Nuseiriyeh, the Druzes, and the adherents
of the "Sheikh el Jebel" or Old Man of the Mountain, with the
latter's blindly and fanatically devoted "fedawis" or assassins
(see Besant and Palmer's "History of Jerusalem," pp. 359 — 363),
he and other rulers of El Islamiyeh who succeeded him, strove
to counteract their dangerous and murderous doctrines by
educating the Moslem youth in the real teachings of the Koran.
For this purpose there were founded at Cairo, and in other
cities, including Jerusalem, great Saracenic Colleges, such as
we have, had occasion to refer to in this book heretofore, and
in the "Jewish Missionary Intelligence," 1905, pp. 28, 29.

A view of the interior of St. Anne's Church, looking eastward
toward the altar, is seen in illustration 123. Like several other
Palestinian churches of the same period, it consists of a nave
and parallel aisles. St. Anne's has several curious features.'
It is, for example, seen by a visitor, standing at the western
end of the axial line of the nave, to be unsymmetrical. The
left hand .aisle, for instance, is not exactly like the right hand
one, and the small eastern window over the eastern apse seems
to be too much on one side. These seeming irregularities are
as I have been told by a learned Roman Catholic priest, char-
acteristic not only of this, but also of other churches of the

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same age, especially in the south of France. The mediaeval
architects, most of them "religious," i.e., monks, tried to give
"sermons in stones," and to impress upon worshippers, amongst
other doctrines, not only that the church was the "navis," or
ship in which the believer passed safely over the waves of this
troublesome world into the land of eternal rest; but that it was
also the "Corpus Christi," or spiritual body of Christ, the
temple in the walls of which true Christians were the living
stones. In order to express this idea, churches were often built,
like St. Anne's, lop-sided, so as to remind one of Christ's
body hanging on the Cross, with His head inclined to one side.

In the southern, or right-hand aisle, is a broad flight of
steps leading down to chambers, or crypts, said to have been
the apartments in which the parents of the Virgin dwelt, and
where she was born. We need not either visit or describe
them, for many of the Romanists themselves doubt the genuine-
ness of these churches, and a fierce paper-war has been
waged by the Franciscans against the "White Fathers," who
own the church of St. Anne. They have, as it would appear,
materially enlarged the chambers, besides adding new ones "for
the edification of the faithful," i.e., of the credulous.

CHAPTER XXIII.

leaving the precincts of St. Anne's Church
and the modern seminary adjoining it, a few further
remarks on the history of the place may not be
deemed superfluous. From Moslem writers, such
as Abul Feda, we learn that before the Crusaders
took Jerusalem it had already become a Moslem
"dar el 'ilm," or house of learning, but that "when the Franks
took Jerusalem, it was once again turned into a church."
A Benedictine Sisterhood was then installed in the adjoining
convent, and St. Anne's Abbey rose to great importance in
the days of Baldwin I., who compelled his wife Arda, an
Armenian princess, to take the veil there. Not long after-
ward, the convent of St. Anne had the honour of receiving
a princess of the blood-royal, Ivette, the daughter of Baldwin
II., who afterward became abbess of the convent of St. Lazarus
at Bethany, the modern El Azariyeh, a wretched little Moslem
village built amongst the ruins, and with the materials of
the said convent. When the Crusaders were turned out of
Jerusalem, Saladin, as we have noticed in the preceding
chapter, again turned the church into a Mohammedan school.

Leaving this interesting spot, we continue our walk along
the street leading westward. After passing an archway thrown
across the street, and generally sheltering a group of coffee-
drinkers and smokers from sun or rain, we cross a street
leading to Bab Hytta, one of the northern entrances to jthe
Temple-area. Illustration 124 gives a glimpse of the Dome of
the Rock from this gateway. We do not turn aside to gaze
at it, but still proceed westward. The Saracenic buildings
bordering the street on our left are of later date than the
Crusading era, for we notice, built into the lower courses
here and there, many stones with the peculiar and characteristic
Crusading diagonal dressing and "masons' marks."

"Masons' marks," of which there is an endless variety, are
found on i2th and i3th century buildings not only in Palestine,
but also, it is said, on many edifices, such as churches, etc.,
of the same period in different parts of Europe, including Great

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

Britain and Ireland. The first writer to notice the existence of
such interesting marks on buildings at Jerusalem was the Fran-
ciscan Morone da Maleo, in 1669. Of late years they have
attracted a great deal of notice and study from antiquarians. It
is supposed that they are the "hall-marks" of various guilds of
masons and stone-cutters who travelled from country to country
in order to put up important buildings, in the same way in

(124) Dome of the Rock from Bab Hytta.

which, when Christ Church, Jerusalem, had to be built nearly
sixtj' years ago, it was necessary, there being then no competent
workmen on the spot, to bring stone-cutters from Malta. Thus
history repeats itself.

Immediately in front of us, another heavy arch bestrides
the street, throwing a very deep shadow; and just before we
reach it, we notice (illustration 125) a remarkable ruined minaret

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

or mosque-tower on the right-hand side. This is often pointed
out to tourists as "the tower of Antonia." As a matter of factr
it is very likely that the seven courses of massive masonry
forming its lower portion, really are a relic of that famous
fortress, part of the site of which is occupied by the Turkish
barracks at the N.W. corner of the Temple-area. A few minutes

:.*

(125) Tower of Antonia.

after passing this arch and minaret we have on our left the sai<J
barracks, the court-yard of which, once the site of the chapel of
the Crowning with Thorns, now long since destroyed, may be
considered as the starting-point of the Via Dolorosa. On
our right, the recently restored Franciscan chapel and convent
of the Flagellation of Christ, which is worth visiting, because
here there has been laid bare during recent years a considerable

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

portion of massive Roman pavement like that which we have
already noticed in other parts of the city. The stones are
grooved in order to prevent horses slipping. This pavement,
which some suppose to be remains of the Gabbatha of St. John
xix. 13, is formed of great slabs of limestone from three to four
feet square and almost a foot thick. It extends southward for
some distance, a continuation of it having been discovered under
the adjacent nunnery of the Ecce Homo, and also beyond that
under the Greek convent erected in 1906 in connexion with the
newly-invented "Prison and Stocks of Christ," of which an
account and illustration appeared in the "Jewish Missionary
Intelligence" for August, 1906, page 125.

(126) Reconstruction of the Ecce Homo Arch.

The central arch of the Roman gateway (illustration 126),
called the "Ecce Homo," from the tradition that it was here
that Pilate placed the Saviour in view of the clamouring mul-
titude, saying, "Behold, the man!" has been found by com-
petent investigation to be of later date, having probably been
a triumphant gateway built in honour of Hadrian in the 2nd
century. The small southern side portal no longer exists,
its place being taken by the khan or hospice, for Moslem
pilgrims from Hindustan and Central Asia. The corresponding:
northern one is still preserved, and forms a very picturesque
and interesting "reredos" or background to the altar in the
nunnery chapel (illustration 127).

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

In the time of Christ, there was here a remarkable double
or twin-pool, which still exists underground, and part of which
is shewn in illustration 126. It is inaccessible now, but could
still be visited some twenty years ago through an entrance in the
cellars of the nunnery. A glimpse of the northern pool can at
present only be obtained from a window in the subterranean
corridor or gallery running underneath the great pavement in

(127) Altar in the Chapel of Ecce Homo.

the above-mentioned convent of the Flagellation. It still con-
tains a great deal of water, which has percolated through the
surrounding soil, and been drained from the rocky declivity of
the Bezetha hill to the north of it. That it once received
another supply is proved by the existence of a mysterious rock-
hewn aqueduct, which runs into it, and has been traced right
through the city as far as the rock-cut foundations of the present

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

city-wall close to the so-called "Cotton Grotto," or "Solomon's
Quarries," just east of the Damascus Gate, but no further.

Illustration 128 shews the entrance to the quarries on the
left, and, in the lower right-hand corner, the blocked-up end
of the said aqueduct, hewn in the rock. The white stones
seen in the foreground are taken from the quarry for the
clock-tower, which has been built over the Jaffa Gate tower,
and is furnished with a timepiece which strikes Oriental time,
but has four dials, two of which mark European, and two
the Eastern hours of the day. As this description may not

(128) City Wall near Solomon's Quarries.

be intelligible to the general reader, it may not be out of
place to remark that in the East the same mode of reckon-
ing the hours of day and night is practically in vogue
amongst the natives generally, and for Moslem religious pur-
poses more especially, as was used in New Testament times.
The hours are reckoned from sunset, twelve for the night and
twelve for the day; sunset at all seasons of the year being at
the twelfth hour. It follows therefore that, except at the equi-
noxes, when day and night are of equal length, 6 o'clock by
day or night may fall at any time between n o'clock and i
o'clock a.m. or p.m. Forty years ago few people, except Euro-
peans, had watches or clocks, and the hour of the day or night

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was guessed at by looking at the sun, one's own shadow, or
the stars. Now watches are common, and there are several
public clocks. Besides these there is another ancient and
interesting way by which the lapse of time is noted in the
Holy City. In ancient Roman households it used to be marked,
as we are informed by Sir W. Ramsay in his "Letters to the
Seven Churches," page 9, by the sound of a trumpet.

(129) The Via Dolorosa.

"The use of the trumpeter after the Roman fashion to
proclaim the lapse of time," says he, "is said to have been kept
up until recently in the old imperial city of Goslar, where, in
accordance with the more minute accuracy of modern thought
and custom, he sounded every quarter of an hour."

This custom, as it is interesting to note, still survives at
Jerusalem, where the blast of a Turkish bugler stationed on
the roof of the barracks on the site of the Antonia, is every

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quarter of an hour answered by another bugler on the ramparts
of the citadel close to the Jaffa Gate.

Three points deserve our notice before we leave the Ecce
Homo chapel. The first is, that the northern wall is artificially
scarped rock, forming, in ancient times part of the counter scarp
of the great rock-hewn trench which separated the Antonia from
Bezetha to the north of it. This scarp is continued westward as

(130) The House of Veronica.

far as the great Austrian hospice, and in part is honeycombed
with artificially hewn chambers in three tiers one above the
other, some of which are accessible in the Greek convent
above-mentioned, and situated between the Ecce Homo and
the hospice. The second point is that during the excavations
at the Ecce Homo and the Chapel of the Flagellation, several
curious stone stands or pedestals were found. One of these
stands in the porch of the Ecce Homo chapel, and one is shewn

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standing under the cloister on the left of the picture of the
restored arch (illustration 126). These pedestals are supposed
to have served as stands for street orators, and also to have
been specimens of the kind of stones called "Eben ha Toim" in
the Talmud, and on which articles that had been lost in the
streets were publicly displayed in order that they might be
claimed by their rightful owners. The third point, a very inter-
esting one in connexion with Jewish mission work, is suggested
by the Latin inscription seen in illustration 127, "Blessed is He
that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosannah!" and "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do." The Ecce
Homo nunnery is one of the principal institutions in connexion
with the Roman Catholic mission for the conversion of the
Jews, and was founded by the late Father Marie Alphonse
Ratisbonne, himself by birth a Jew, but converted in 1842 to
the Roman faith, according to the account given . in a little
book belonging to the Granville Popular Library series (London :
Burns & Gates Limited), by a vision in which the Virgin Mary
herself appeared to him whilst on a visit to the church of St.
Andrea delle Fratte at Rome. The "Sisters of Zion" resident
at the Ecce Homo have schools for day-scholars and boarders,
which are attended not only by daughters of Jews but also of
Moslems, Greeks and others, who desire for their girls a better
education than they could get elsewhere. Many of the nuns
who teach in these schools are ladies of rank, several connected
with European royalties. They have a sister-institution at Ain
Karim. There is also, in connexion with the same mission, a
large boys' school outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Leaving the Ecce Homo we proceed on our way along the
Via Dolorosa (illustration 129), in which ecclesiastical tradition,
not earlier, however, than the fourteenth century (the first
allusion to it being in the work of Marinus Sanutus) brought
together the scenes of all the historical or legendary events
connected with the crucifixion. We ascend by it to the northern
end of Christian Street, noticing as we do so the traditional
"House of Veronica" (illustration 130) the only one of the
various "Stations of the Cross" deserving a passing notice. It
is a modern building erected over a basement of the Crusading
period. The legend is that St. Veronica, a pious woman, met
Christ as He passed her house when going to His death; and,
moved with pity, handed Him a napkin with which to wipe His
face when covered with blood and sweat. When He handed
back the napkin, it was found that the stains had produced a

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"true portrait," "Vera icon" of His face. The true facts are that,
as already noticed in previous chapters, in the case of the
traditions connected with the "Golden Gate," and St. Anne's,
we have here also an instance of a linguistic misunderstanding.
"St. Veronica's name and existence," says Mr. Benjamin Scott
in his "Contrasts and Teachings of the Catacombs" (page 153),
"are derived from the words 'Vera icon' (a true likeness) formerly
inscribed under pictures which purported to be representations
of Christ. These certified copies came in time to be called
'Veronicae,' and were known by that name to Christian writers.
It was not until the fourteenth century that Rome constructed
but of legends, based upon the ignorant use of the word 'Ver-
onicse,' the saintship and history of St. Veronica and estab-
lished her worship."

The last thing we notice in this chapter is the remarkable
building connected with a mosque and minaret at the corner
where the Via Dolorosa strikes the northern end of Christian
Street.

This building, now called El Khankeh, was the palace of
the Latin Patriarch during the Crusading period, and when
Jerusalem was taken by the Moslems in 1187, °f Saladin him-
self. The walled-up Gothic portal* close by and in Christian
Street, was used by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre, and is
connected with a still existing gallery adjoining that church.
Within recent years changes have taken place in Christian
Street, many of the old buildings having been destroyed and
new ones built instead.

* For illustration of this walled-up portal, see page 56 "Jewish Missionary Intelli-
gence" for 1890, entitled "Street Scene in Jerusalem."

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CHAPTER XXIV.

after passing the Crusading Patriarch's
now walled-up entrance to the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, mentioned in the last chapter, we proceed
along the northern portion of Christian Street. It is
in part arched over, forming a bazaar in which,
besides the groceries, wax candles, beads, pictures,
and other articles displayed for the use of pilgrims, there may
be noticed, on the left-hand side, the entrance to a little, dark,
but white-washed chamber, with a prayer-niche or Mihrab in its
southern wall, and sometimes a bit of ragged and dirty matting
spread in front of the latter, shewing that it is a Moslem house
of prayer. This small, and, as a rule, seldom used little mosque,
which is often utilized as a lumber-room for storing away empty
packing-cases belonging to the shopkeepers close by, is said to
have been built by Omar. It was once famous, as is testified
by various Moslem writers, for its connexion with a legend
reminding one of the story of the brazen serpent; it may
possibly contain a reminiscence of it, and perhaps also of the
cities of refuge. I shall quote it as given in the pages of Mejr
ed-din (A.D. 1495), vol. I. pages 112, 113, Cairo edition. "El Hafiz
ben Asakir said, 'I have read in an ancient book that in Beit
el Makdas were great and deadly serpents, but that Allah
privileged his worshippers by granting them a mesjid (place of
worship, i.e., mosque) on the road which was taken by Omar bin
el Khattab, with whom Allah was pleased, from a church there
which is known as the dunghill, and there are two great stone
pipes upon the heads (capitals) on which are the images <of
serpents; and it is said that they are a charm against them, for
if a serpent stings a man in Beit el Makdas, it does him no harm,
but if he goes out of Beit el Makdas, even though it be only
for the distance of one span, he will die instantly. The remedy
against this is that he remains in Beit el Makdas for three
hundred and sixty days, for if he goes out before that time,
even though only one day be lacking for the completion of the
term, he will perish. This is also mentioned by El Herowee in
his book of 'Places to be visited,' etc."

Though I have often visited this little mosque I have never

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seen any trace of these wonderful hollow talismanic pillars or
pipes, the use of which is so vaguely mentioned, but I suspect
that the legend may have risen from the existence, in a vault a
little distance further north, but on the same side of the street,
of two old columns with Corinthian capitals — old materials
which have been re-used in mediaeval times as ornamental sides
to a doorway. The location of this mosque of the serpent's
talisman is minutely and accurately described by the Arab
historian as, "in Christian Street and close to the Church of the
Sepulchre on the west, being on the left-hand side of a person
starting from the great staircase, and going toward the Khan-
keh," or palace of the Latin Patriarch in Crusading times.

(131) Ancient Arabic Inscription.

Arriving at the southern end of the vaulted portion of the
street, we now turn sharply to the left, and, having descended
some broad steps, we again turn to the left, noticing, however,
in the corner on the right-hand side, the entrance to another
mosque with a Turkish inscription over the doorway. It is the
mosque erected or restored about 1858 by orders of the then
reigning Sultan Abdul Mejid, on the site wrongly said by the
Moslem tradition to be that where Omar prayed, on the staircase
leading to the Church of the Sepulchre, when the city was first
surrendered to the Moslems in A.D. 637. The tradition is wrong,
because at that time the entrance to the Church of the Sepulchre
was from the east, close to where the Khan ez Zeit market riow
is, and, as a matter of fact, just here there was found, about

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fifteen years ago, the ancient Arabic inscription belonging to the
mosque commemorating Omar's act of worship. Since we
began these "Walks" there has been discovered, only a few feet
distant from the spot where this inscription (illustration 131) was
found, the remains of the great eastern gateway belonging to the
famous buildings of Constantine on the supposed site of the
Holy Sepulchre.

The following is a translation of the inscription: "In the
name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The command
has gone forth from the exalted Majesty that this mesjid
(mosque) is to be well guarded and kept in good repair, and
that no one protected by us (that is, either Christians or Jews)

(132) Excavations of St. Maria Latina.

shall be allowed to enter under the pretext that he wishes to
swear a legal oath there, or with any other object. Let great
care be taken that this order be not contravened, and that the
regulations laid down in this matter be obeyed. May this be
the will of Allah." See also Palestine Exploration Fund "Quar-
terly Statement" for April, 1898.

However, the mosque restored by Abdul Mejid, and its
*minaret to the south of the present Church of the Sepulchre,

* This minaret was built A.H. 8;o=A.D. 1465—6. The other, close to the Khankeh,
was erected A.H. 82O=A.D. 1417—18. Christians were greatly annoyed because it over-
topped the Church of the Sepulchre, and they offered a great sum of money to the
builder. Sheikh Barhan ed din bin Ghanem, to induce him to abandon his design.
He, however, refused, and then, as Moslems say, Mohammed appeared in a dream to a
man whom he directed to salute Ibn Ghanem in his name, and assure him of his inter-
cession at the Day of Judgment, as a reward for his having built this minaret above
the heads of the infidels.

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and forming a pair with that towering above the Khankeh, is
now generally known as "El Omariyeh," or place of Omar.
There is another mosque of Omar (not the Dome of the Rock,
which is often erroneously called by that name) in the Temple-
area, which we are now on our way to visit.

Descending the broad staircase which leads down into the
great court-yard, outside the Church of the Sepulchre, we pass

(133) Entrance to the Cotton Merchants' Bazaar.

through it into the street running along the north of the Muristan.
On our left is the great convent and hospice of Abraham, which
we have already visited, the basement of which is built over a
huge cistern, one hundred feet long, fifty broad, and as many
deep. Two rows, containing each eight great columns, support
the vaulted barrel-roof. .When empty, and lit up with magnesium
wire, as I saw it when cleaned out after its discovery, it looks

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like a- great deserted cathedral, dismantled and stripped of all
accessories. At the time it was found there was great jubilation
amongst those who upheld the claims of the traditional Holy
Sepulchre, and pointed to it as a fragment of the trench which
ran along the second wall of Jerusalem in Christ's time. Since
then, however, another discovery, namely that the Muristan and
the new German church, consecrated by the Emperor William
during his visit to Jerusalem, are built over a broad and very

(134) Staircase from Cotton Bazaar to Temple Area.

deep, though now fiHed-up valley, the "Maktash" ol Zephaniah
i. ii ; and that the great cistern is not altogether rock-cut, but
built in the accumulated debris, has disproved the theory. It is
of Byzantine origin, and now generally attributed to Constantine.
It is accessible to visitors who are willing to pay a baksheesh
to the porter at Abraham's convent, and is really worth a visit.

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As I do not remember whether, when we passed this way
before, I mentioned the fact of the discovery at a considerable
depth from the surface, of a great and very ancient wall running
east and west deep below the site of the German church, I now
furnish an illustration (132) of the same taken from Dr. Merrill's
work on "Ancient Jerusalem," page 297. In the background of
the picture are seen the line of shops forming the basement of
the convent of Abraham above-mentioned. This wall was found
during the diggings in order to lay the foundations of the
Emperor William's church on the site of the mediaeval St. Maria
Latina.

European visitors desirous of seeing the Temple-area must be
accompanied by a Consular cawass, who in his turn calls on his
way with the party at the Serai, or Government house. This
about thirty years ago was still located close to the military bar-
racks, on the site of the Antonia, but is at present installed in
the back-rooms and courts of a very interesting Saracenic
building situated on the eastern slope of the Acra hill, and some-
times spoken of as Helena's hospital, whilst some authorities
have even gone so far as to suggest that it is the splendid
hospital erected by the orders of Gregory the Great of Rome
(A.D. 590 — 604) for the reception of pilgrims. The architecture
of the great edifice, however, is in the best Saracenic style, and
we are expressly told by Mejr ed-din that it was erected by a
very wealthy and charitable lady named "Sitt Tonshok." Her
tomb is shewn on the opposite side of the street to the richly
decorated northern fa9ade of the imposing palace the date of
which is A.H. 794, i.e., A.D. 1391 — 2.

The street here is unfortunately so very narrow that it has
not been possible for me to bring the camera to bear on this
noteworthy specimen of Eastern builders' craft. In an old ruined
building adjoining is a Mohammedan public kitchen, established,
it is said, by another ancient Moslem lady, the name of whom
was given me as "Haski Sultana,"* for the daily relief of the
poor. The "sportula" is still doled out every day, and the
enormous cauldrons in which the food is prepared rival the
capacious porridge-pot of Guy of Warwick. This charity, which
is superintended by the government, is maintained by the rev-
enues of various houses in the city, and the village of Beit Jala,
near Bethlehem, is its property. It and the handsome structure
close by, are known as Et Tekiyeh, i.e., the hospice or hospital.

* Since the above was written, the writer has learnt that this person was Roxelana,
the favourite Sultana of Suleiman II.

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From the government offices, a short though winding street
brings us to the western entrance of the old cotton bazaar
(illustration 133). It is a remarkable structure about three
hundred feet long and fifty or sixty broad. Its outer shell is
formed of large bevelled stones apparently belonging to some
important building of the Grseco-Roman period. The interior
consists of a great tunnel-like passage with shops, and adjoining
chambers built in Saracenic style. An Arabic inscription, flanked

(135) Saracenic Fountain.

by goblets which seem to have been the armorial bearings of the
same Emir Tunguz, who constructed the Mekhkemeh building,
shews that he had a hand in the construction of one of the two
Turkish baths occupying some of the chambers in its southern
side. One of these baths is noteworthy, because connected with
a very deep draw-well, at the bottom of which, 86 feet below its
mouth, is the entrance to a remarkable rocky chamber and
passage 128 feet long, supposed to belong to the Roman period.

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At the end of this is a small spring of brackish water,
from which the bath is supplied, but which sometimes fails in
years of excessive drought. In the outer-room of the bath is an
ornamental fountain, to form which an elaborately carved circular
marble basin, evidently once a baptismal font, has been utilised.

Except as an approach to the Temple-area the bazaar of the
cotton-merchants is now deserted, and the rows of shops on
either side of the great passage-way are now filled to their
ceilings with the accumulated rubbish of centuries. Before
the overland caravan-trade from India by way of Bussorah,
Baghdad, and Mosul declined, as a result of the discovery
of the sea-route round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497—8,
the muslins, calicoes of Mosul and Calcutta, and the silks
of the further east, used to be displayed here by Oriental
traffickers. When the approaching visit of the Emperor William
was announced, early in 1897, to the municipality of Jerusalem,
that body of sages, after due deliberation, decided that the
Imperial eyes must on no account be offended by the sight of
so much dirt, and therefore, as they found that it would be
cheaper to hide than to remove it, they had wooden doors
put to the shops in order to conceal their contents. Since
then, however, several of the doors have broken down and
the shame behind is only too apparent. By the steps (il-
lustration 134) leading up to the doorway at the further end,
we enter the sunlit Temple-precincts or Haram Area, with
its Saracenic domes, fountains (illustration 135), and tree-shaded
mastabehs or platforms for prayer. See! that imposing stair-
case right in front of us, with cypress trees shading its feet,
a Saracenic colonnade at its top, and the great Dome of
the Rock in the background, occupy the actual site of the
Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple.

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CHAPTER XXV.

|HE Bab el Kattanin (illustration 136) by which we
emerge from the gloom of the deserted Cotton
Bazaar, occupies, together with the Bab el Mathara,
a few steps to the south of it, a central position
amongst the eight gates on the western side of
the present Temple-area or Haram enclosure. I
need not trouble the reader with the names of the other
gates on this side, or of the three along the northern. On
the eastern and southern sides there are none open at present,
and we noticed them walled up when we passed along the
outside of the city and the Haram. The Bab el Kattanin
is a very fair specimen of a Saracenic gateway, with the
characteristic pendentives or stalactite ornaments and parti-
coloured stone-work. It is not certain by whom it was built, but
Arab authors record its having been repaired A.H. 737— A. D.
1336 — 7, by Sultan Melik en Nasr Mohammed Kelaun. Because
of its ornate character it was at one time supposed (like the
Golden Gate at another), to have been the "Beautiful Gate" of
Acts iii. 2. To the right and left, that is northward and south-
ward, there stretch, over the space occupied in Herod's temple
by the double aisles of his western cloisters, a series of heavy
Saracenic arcades or single cloisters resting on massive piers
(illustration 140), the spaces between which have in several
places been walled up in order to form chambers. Just south
of Bab el Mathara the continuity of these arches is interrupted
by the projection into the area, of the Saracenic College,
"Medresset el Ashrafiyeh," the handsome portico to which is
shewn in illustration 137, its date being A.H. 888=A.D. 1483.
It was in course of erection when Felix Fabri visited Jerusalem.

South of it, and next in order, comes the Bab es Silsileh,
described and illustrated in former chapters, and from that point
the Saracenic cloisters again continue southward as far as the
Bab el Magharibeh, between the Jews' Wailing Place and Robin-
son's Arch. From the walled-up cloisters, just before we reach
the Bab el Magharibeh, a winding staircase leads down into a
remarkable subterranean, chamber with a massive vault of the
Herodian period forming its roof. The ancient floor is hidden

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by many feet of debris, for this is an ancient gate-passage
leading inward from one of the old Jewish temple gateways of
our Lord's time. In fact, the huge lintel is still visible just
above ground in a recess on the west; it is on the other
side of the lintel which we previously mentioned as existing

(136) Bab el Kattanin.

south of the Wailing Place, and known as "Barclay's Gate."
Few Europeans of the present generation have ever visited this
underground chamber, which is called by Moslems the Mosque
of El Borak, because here one is shewn the iron ring to which
Gabriel is said to have secured that marvellous human-headed
and winged creature when Mohammed made his fabulous night-

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journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. It is true that 400 years ago,
as Arab writers attest, the place where the celestial beast Borak
was tied up was shewn further north, at Bab en Nazir, but what
does tradition care for the records of historians ? Is it not
enough that the place was in the Haram, and has not a Moslem

(137) Porch of Medresset el Ashrafiyeh.

artist left an old picture of the event? And is not the "Kubbet
el Miraj" on the Mosque platform, the place whence Mohammed
ascended to Heaven? (illustration 138). Christian antiquaries
indeed assert that the latter, which was repaired by the Emir
Isfehsalan Uzz-ed-din, son of Amru Othman, Governor of Jerus-
alem in A.H. 5g6=A.D. 1199 — 1200, was in times previous to

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that, the baptistery of the Christian Church which occupied
the site of the Dome of the Rock.

The present western cloisters form the basement of a line
of Saracenic buildings, former schools, the endowments of
which have long since lapsed, leaving the houses themselves
to be used as dwellings for people now connected with the

(138) Dome of Mohammed's Ascension.

Haram. In Herod's Temple there were no such buildings
forming a second story to the cloisters. Instead of the pointed
arches springing from heavy quadrangular piers we must imagine
long double aisles with a flat cedar roof, resting on slender
marble Corinthian columns about thirty-seven feet high, and
running all round the Temple enclosure, the outer row of
columns resting on the city-wall as is shewn in illustration

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139. In illustration 139 we have the southern and western
sides portrayed, namely, i. Triple Gate. — 2. Double Gate. —
3. Robinson's Arch and Gate above. — 4. Barclay's Gate, south
of Wailing Place. — 5. Wilson's Arch and Gate above. — 6. North-
ernmost Gate, now a cistern under "Sebil Kayet Bey."

Bearing in mind that there were no buildings above the
cloisters, we can now recall vividly one of the terrible scenes
that took place along this part of the Temple-area in A.D. 70.
It was July 27th. The Romans had, three weeks previously,

(139) Model of Herod's Temple, by Mr. Tenz.

obtained possession of the Antonia, occupying the top of the
great artificially isolated rock on which the dark Turkish bar-
racks and minaret, seen in illustration 140, now stand dominating
the Temple-area at its north-west corner. The cloisters connect-
ing the Fortress with the Temple had been purposely set on fire
by the Jews, in order to prevent the enemy using them to
reach the Sanctuary-courts. Part of the northern cloisters had
also been burnt down by Roman fire. The troops of Titus now
attacked the northern end of the western cloisters at a spot
close to the site of the present Bab en Nazir and fierce fighting
ensued; when, suddenly, as if panic-stricken, the defenders
clambered down off the cedar-roof. In the ardour of the fight a

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large number of their assailants, applying ladders, climbed to the
deserted coign of vantage and then prepared to descend into the
courts of the Temple. Suddenly flames, issuing from below,
burst out all around them. Too late came the discovery that
they had been led into becoming the rash victims of a stratagem
of war. The space inside the cloisters had, unknown to them,
been some time previously, and in pursuance of a deliberate
plan, filled with combustibles now on fire. This was the secret
of the defenders' well-feigned panic. One man excepted, the
Romans on the roof all perished by fire or sword. Was not
suicide considered by the Romans the approved way for des-
perate men to end their lives? The one who escaped from the
frightful situation was Artorius. His ruse is thus described: —

(140) Saracenic Arches in Haram Enclosure.

"When he had with a loud voice called to him Lucius, one
of his fellow-soldiers that lay with him in the same tent, he said
to him, CI do leave thee heir of all I have, if thou wilt come and
receive me.' Upon this he came running to receive him readily;
Artorius then threw himself down upon him" (who stood about
forty feet below), "whilst he that received him was dashed so
violently against the pavement by the other's weight, that he
died immediately." It was but one small incident in a terrible
tragedy, but we can realize the scene vividly as we stand
looking at these Arab cloisters. The fire then destroyed Herod's
Temple as far as John's tower, which stood probably close to
the present Bab es Silsileh. The leap of Artorius took place
somewhere close to the present Bab en Nazir. The approximate
locality is indicated by the crosses x. x, in illustration 140, and

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beyond the modern "mastabeh" and the "mihrab," the back
of which is seen close to the fourth open arch in the Arab
cloister.

The Temple in our Lord's time had four gates on the west.
The exact position of these is well ascertained. The remains

(141) Drinking Fountain of Kayet Bey.

of three at least still exist, though they are not all accessible
at present. Beginning from the south we have first of all
the approach over Robinson's Arch, then the remains of Bar-
clay's Gate, and then the gate which once occupied the site
of the Bab es Silsileh, built over Wilson's Arch. Last and
northernmost of all, though like Barclay's Gate at a level

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considerably lower than the floor of the Temple-area, is a
great gate-passage, now inaccessible because it has been
blocked up at either end and turned into a huge cistern
which has been found to reach right through the western wall of
the Temple-area. The position of this is indicated above, by

(142) Plan of the Haram Area.

that of the picturesque Saracenic sebil, or drinking fountain of
Kayet Bey (illustration 141) erected A.D. 1445, by the same
Egyptian ruler whose mosque at Cairo (built about A.D. 1475) is
generally acknowledged to be one of the finest remaining speci-
mens of the Saracenic architecture of the isth century. The
dome of the sebil is artistically ornamented with arabesques in

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relief as seen in the illustration. This precise knowledge of the
exact position of the gates of the "Outer Temple" is of course
of the greatest help in determining the approximate situation of
other buildings that once existed inside the enclosure, but of
which no trace remains nowadays. Illustration 142 is a plan
of the Haram Area and its surroundings, copied from the Pales-
tine Bxploration map, which may be consulted for the various
sites.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

|UR present knowledge of the exact positions in which
the Gates of the ancient Temple stood — and where
some and the remains of others still exist in the
great "peribolos," or enclosure-wall of the Haram
Area (a mighty and ancient monument of which,
strange to say, Josephus has no mention) — makes it
a comparatively easy task to locate, and with the help of the two
descriptions of the Sanctuary given in the pages of the Jewish
historian ("Antiq." xv. n; and "Wars" v. 5), as well as the
detailed account furnished by the Mishnic treatise, "Middoth,"
to re-construct the Temple as restored by Herod on the lines of
that built by Nehemiah, who erected his on the same foundations
which had supported Solomon's. The result of study and
exploration, therefore, enables us to point out on the plan
of the "Haram esh Sharif" the approximate positions of the
different parts of the famous edifice.

Till about thirty years ago, although all authorities were
unanimously agreed that the Jewish Temple stood somewhere
within the great enclosure, yet there was a considerable differ-
ence of opinion as to the exact site it occupied. Some placed
it in the south-eastern corner, others elsewhere, whilst some be-
lieved that the Holy of Holies stood on the remarkable perforated
Rock from which the "Kubbet es Sakkhrah" or "Dome of the
Rock" takes its name — though Europeans often misname it "the
Mosque of Omar." And there were not a few who believed
the said Rock to have been the foundation of the great Altar of
Burnt-Offering, and these recognized that the curious bore
through the rock into the cave underneath was connected with
the cesspool which is known to have existed under the Altar.
This served as the entrance to the canal through which the
blood of the victims, mixed with the water that had been used
for ablutions, passed out into the Kedron. (See "Middoth,"
with the commentary of R. Bartenora, P. E. F. "Quarterly State-
ment," for April, 1887, page 118, and 2 footnote 15).

At the present day this is the prevalent view, and one great
argument in its favour is, that if in attempted reconstructions the
Holy of Holies be placed on the Rock, it is found that there is

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too much space to the west and too little to the east for
the buildings, whereas if the Altar be placed on the Rock over
the cave, the different parts of the Temple fit into position and
to the natural lie of the ground. This proof has become actual
demonstration in the celebrated models made by the late
Dr. Schick, Mr. Tenz (illustration 143), and other students of
this interesting subject. Illustration 143 gives a view of the
eastern and northern sides of the Temple.

Bearing these facts in mind we will now proceed on our
visit to the different parts of the Haram, and the kind reader
will not be incredulous when we state that such a Herodian
building stood here or such another, there. Illustration 144 is a

(143) Model of Herod's Temple.

view of the Area from the minaret at its south-west corner,
looking north-east. At the left-hand side we have, in the back-
ground, the barracks and minaret on the site of Antonia, on
the right-hand the slopes of Mount Scopus, and in the middle
the beautiful Dome of the Rock, in the centre of the great
platform, which coincides in position, and approximately in
dimensions, with that on which stood the group of buildings
technically known as "the Inner Temple," and comprising the
Holy House, with special edifices north and south, and the
Women's Court to the east of it. On the left we look along
the west side of the Area northward.

Illustration 145 is a general view from a point exactly
opposite to the preceding, and looking south-east. Taken from

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an elevated point at the north-western corner, it shews the
western half of the northern side of the platform, with an
arcade at the extreme left and another at the top of the great
staircase at the north-western corner of the platform. These
stairs to the platform, of which there are three on the western
side, two on its northern, one on the eastern, and two on
its southern side, were built or restored by various Saracenic
Emirs and Sultans. Each has an arcade at its top, constructed
of old materials. These arcades (illustration 146 shews part
of that seen at the top of the stairs in the centre of illus-

(144) View of Haram Area, looking North-East.

tration 145), are popularly known as "El Mawazin" or "the
Balances," because of the belief that from them will be sus-
pended the scales in which will be weighed the souls of
those who have, at the Day of Judgment, safely crossed the
terrible bridge "Es Sirat" which, constructed of one single
horse-hair, will stretch across the Kedron from the lop of
the minaret on Olivet to the projecting column known as
"Mohammed's Judgment-Seat." "Then," to use the very
language of a Moslem muleteer with whom the writer travelled
sixteen years ago, "every believer will have a palace given
to him for his very own, containing every sort of delight, and
if he desire to converse with any of his former relatives on

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earth, the palace will, of its own accord, move till it approach
that of the person its owner wishes to interview. The believers
will speak to each other from the windows of their respective
mansions, after which each palace will, of its own accord,
return to its appointed station."

To return to the staircase in illustration 145. The tiny dome,
supported on slender marble columns on the corner of the wall
above the foot of the staircase, is called the "Kubbet El Khudr,"
or dome of Elijah — St. George — Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the
high-priest, who is conceived of as an ancient saint, who, having

(145) View of Haram Area, looking South-East.

discovered and drunk of the fountain of eternal youth, never
dies, but appears from time to time as a sort of personification
of retributive providence, in order to right and protect the
helpless and wronged, and to punish evil-doers. The row of
small domed buildings along the northern side of the platform
are used for lodgings, for Mosque-servants, etc. Just behind
one of them is seen the small cupola of the "Kubbet El Arwah,"
or Dome of the Spirits, where the ghosts of departed Moslem
saints assemble for worship, according to popular belief, at
night-time. It is interesting because its floor is formed of the
polished rock. We have over forty observations for rock
levels within the Temple-area, and these shew that to the north
of the Dome of the Rock there was a naturally fairly levelled

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rock-floor, which would be admirably suited for an oriental
threshing-floor such as was that of Oman or Araunah (2 Sam.
xxiv. 18 — 25; i Chron. xxi. 18 — 28). Besides this, the locality
just above the north-western staircase, the "Kubbet El Khudr,"
and the "Kubbet El Arwah," is interesting because hereabouts, in
the time of Herod's temple, was situated the "Beth Moked," or
"House of the Hearth," so-called because of the fires which
were kept burning in order to enable the bare-footed priests to
warm themselves. We must imagine a great vaulted apartment,
on either side of which, and projecting from the wall, was a
double row of stone benches, forming steps one above the other,

(146) Arcades or Balances, at North-West Corner.

and serving as bedsteads on which the elders of the house of
the fathers slept on pillows or mattresses — whilst all night long
the priests kept their guard of honour.

Four small rooms opened into this central guard-room. In
the south-western room were kept the lambs selected for the
morning sacrifice; the south-eastern was used for making the
shew-bread; the north-eastern was an office called "the cham-
ber of seals." Here sat the overseer whose duty it was to
receive the money from those who needed fine flour for the
meat offering and wine for the drink offering, and, who received,
in exchange for their cash, a seal or voucher, which they had
to present to the person who supplied these things. In this
"office or chamber of seals" were also preserved the stones of

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the Altar that had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes,
who sacrificed a sow upon it (2 Maccabees x. 3).

The fourth or north-western chamber communicated with
the subterranean sacerdotal bath-room, and this again with an
underground passage by which priests who had incurred cere-
monial defilement could, after bathing, leave the Temple-pre-
cincts unseen.

One of the curious things discovered hereabouts, during
the examination of the huge rock-cut cisterns with which this
part of the great platform is honey-combed, is, that one of these,

(147) Arcade and Marble Pulpit, on Site
of Water Gate.

situated under the spot where part of the Beth Moked stood,
shews by its remarkable shape that it probably was part of this
very same bath. A little distance east of it is another,
that in its present condition, is a portion of an ancient tunnel
which probably was the very same underground passage by
which the defiled priests reached the gate called "Tadi," or
obscurity. This cistern is 130 feet long, twenty-four wide,
and eighteen deep. It runs northward, pointing underground
in the direction of the present northern gate of the Haram
Area. This gate, by a curious coincidence — perhaps the
survival of some tradition about the gate Tadi — is known as
"Bab el 'Atm," or Gate of Darkness. In the background, in the
centre of illustration 145, we have the Dome of the Rock

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viewed from the north, and shewing its northern entrance called
"the Gate of Paradise," because, during the middle ages, there
was a garden belonging to the Convent of the Canons of
the Temple north of the great platform. East of the Dome
of the Rock, i.e., left of the photograph, is the much smaller
"Kubbet es Silsileh," occupying approximately the position of
the Gate of Nicanor, east of the Altar, and between the

(148) Dome of the Rock from the South-East.

Court of the Women and that of Israel. West of the Sakkhrah,
and behind the low square-domed building close to the north-
west "Balances," we see the cupola of Mohammed's Ascent.
Beyond this is the arcade at the top of the staircase, of which
illustrations have already been shewn, as occupying on the
plan the site of the Holy of Holies. In the background, between
a cypress tree, close to the west of the Dome of the Rock
and the south-eastern minaret, we see the buildings of the
Aksa. The larger minaret on the right marks the position of
Bab es Silsileh, etc.

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Before closing this description of illustration 145 it may be
well to remark that extending eastward from the Beth Moked, on
a site in line with the Kubbet el Arwah and the arcade west of
it, and reaching to the western limits of the Women's Court,
we must picture, in our mind's eye, a series of other houses
which stood here in our Lord's time. These were the Corban
Gate by which the victims for sacrifice were brought into the
Tempi:, the Gate Nitsots, with adjacent magazines for salt,
which had to be offered with every offering (compare Lev. ii. 13;
Numbers xviii. 19; St. Mark ix. 50; Col. iv. 6); the room where
the insides of the sacrifices were washed; and the house Parbah,
with a special bath-room, used by the High-priest on the Day
of Atonement. Over the gate Nitsots was a verandah or balcony
where young priests kept watch, a guard of Levites being
stationed below. Inside 'the row of chambers, and looking
southward, ran a line of single cloisters. (Josephus "Wars,"
v. 2).

A similar row of buildings, but used for different purposes,
occupied the southern side of the platform. These were
the chambers for wood selected and assorted for the Altar,
Abtines; the draw-well room; and, more especially, the great
Liscath ha Gazith, of which more hereafter. Between these
chambers came the southern gates of the Inner Temple, named
respectively— "Of Flames," "Of First-things," and the "Water
Gate." The position of the last (illustration 147), coincided
practically with that of the arcade and marble pulpit erected
by the Cadi Barhan ed Din in the i6th century, with old
materials taken from Christian churches. Amongst other carvings
and ornaments in marble there are the remains of a mermaid,
purposely mutilated by iconoclastic Moslems. In illustration 148
we have a view of the Dome of the Rock from the south-east,
shewing in the foreground the arcade or "balances" next ,in
order to that shewn in illustration 147, with a great "Mastabah,"
or prayer platform in front of it. In the interval between the
two arcades probably stood the Liscath ha Gazith, or Great
Hall of Paved Stones, where the sessions of the great San-
hedrin sat, and where St. Peter and St. John (Acts iv. i — 21 ;
v. 21 — 41) made, like St. Stephen some time later (Acts vi. 12 —
vii. 57), their defence before the high tribunal.

This great hall stretched east and west. A line on the marble
pavement shewed the limit, north of which was a part of the
Court of the Priests, within which none but kings of the house
of David might sit. South of the line, and at the western end

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of the great apartment, were the seats for the judges. The
eastern part of the chamber was in daily use, for here, in the
early morning, the priests assembled, in order that their special
shares in the ministerial work for the day might be appor-
tioned >by lot, "which assigned to each his function. Four
times it was resorted to : twice before, and twice after the
Temple gates were opened." (Edersheim, "Life of Jesus," page
134). Clothed in white the priests trooped in and stood in a
row, with hands uplifted and fingers extended, awaiting the
superintending officer's announcement of the number of the
lot, and his touching at random the head of some individual
priest, in order to indicate that there the counting of fingers was
to begin. (See Lightfoot's Horae Hebraicse "Prospect of the
Temple," etc.) The lot for the designation of those who were
to trim the golden candlestick and prepare the golden altar of
incense took place at the second time of assembling, when it
was scarcely daybreak. As we look at the view shewn in this
illustration, we cannot help thinking, not only of the two
apostles and the first Christian martyr, but also of Zechariah,
the father of St. John the Baptist and his wonderful vision.

187

CHAPTER XXVII.

JIMILAR causes produce similar results all the world
over. Hence it not infrequently happens, in Pales-
tine and the East at any rate, that history repeat?
itself though under modified conditions. Having in a
former chapter cursorily surveyed the great platform
in the Temple-area, we now proceed to visit the
remarkable and beautiful building occupying nearly its centre.
We are reminded that when he gave orders for its erection in
A.D. 684, Abd el Malik ibn Merwan, the ninth Caliph or successor
of Mohammed, and the fifth of the Dynasty of Omawiyeh,
whether he was conscious of the fact or not, was really follow-
ing a policy similar to that of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who,
1600 years previously, had set up a new sanctuary to prevent
Israelites from making pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Yet so it was,
though now with Jerusalem as the attraction, designed to
prevent Moslems from visiting Mecca. The reason of Abd el
Malik was that for some eight years the Moslem world had
been distracted by factions and petty quarrels, and the people
of Mecca and Medina rising in rebellion against the authority
of the lawful Khalifeh, had proclaimed Abdallah ibn Zobeir
their spiritual and temporal head; and despite the efforts of
Yezid and Mo'awujah to suppress the insurrection, the rival
commander of the faithful had succeeded in making his authority
acknowledged not only at Mecca but throughout Arabia, Egypt
and the other African provinces. Trembling for his own rule,
and in order to divert Moslem pilgrims from visiting Mecca and
becoming tainted by Ibn Zobeir's religious and political influence,
Abd el Malik conceived the plan of diverting their minds and
inducing them to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem instead.

The task was not a difficult one. El Kuds is frequently
mentioned in the Koran, and closely connected with Scriptural
events which Mohammed had taught as part and parcel of
his own creed. Lastly, his night- journey, to which reference
has been made in former chapters, from Mecca to the Holy
Rock at Jerusalem, and thence through the seven heavens —
these were all points which appealed directly to the mind of

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Islamiyeh. Added to these was the charm of novelty sanctioned
by antiquity, so that we need not be surprised that Abd el
Malik's appeal to his subjects was enthusiastically responded
to, or that letters of approval and congratulation should have
been addressed to him from all quarters.

Having assembled a number of skilled artizans and set
apart for the work a sum of money equal to the whole revenue
of Egypt for seven years, the work was successfully completed
in the year 72 A.H.=A.D. 691. This is attested by a magnificent

(149) Arcade at top of Stairs on Site of the Holy of Holies.

and still extant Cufic inscription inside the Dome of the Rock
and running all round the outer colonnade within the walls.
The name of the original founder has indeed been erased, and
that of Abdullah el Mamun, son of Harun Er Rashid fraudu-
lently substituted, but the forger has over-reached himself as
those of his ilk are wont to do, in having omitted to erase the
date as well as the name of "Abd el Malik," and the writing
still remains as evidence of the latter's munificence. I need not
trouble my readers with the wording. They will find it given at
length in Besant and Palmer's "History of Jerusalem" (Bentley
and Sons, 1888, pp. 94 — 96). The best position for seeing it

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is inside the western doorway with the afternoon sun shining
in over the Arcade at the top of the broad staircase occupying
the site on the plan of the Holy of Holies (illustration 149). The
minaret seen through one of the arches is that over Bab es
Silsileh. The sunshine falling obliquely on to the floor of the
Sakkhrah is reflected upward and illuminates, without directly
striking, the narrow band of ancient Cufic lettering in mosaic
just above the arching of the colonnade inside the building.

The history of the edifice subsequent to its restoration by El

(150) Mosaic Work and Clerestory Windows.

Mamuii is briefly as follows: — The cupola having been des-
troyed by an earthquake was rebuilt in A.D. 1022 by AH Daher
al 'Izaz the son of the mad Khalif eh El Hakim bi amr Illah, who
is worshipped by the Druzes as an incarnation of the Deity.
When the Crusaders took Jerusalem they changed the building
into a church, called it the "Templum Domini" and established,
in close proximity, a body of Canons Regular with a mitred
Abbot at their head. The rock in the centre was hewn in order
to receive a marble casing on which was erected a high altar.
The chippings are said to have been sold by the Christians
for their weight in gold to the relic-worshipping people of Sicily

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and Constantinople (Besant and Palmer, p. 434). The Crusaders'
platform, altar and crosses were demolished when Saladin re-
took the Holy City in 1187, when the rock was thoroughly cleaned
and washed with rose-water and other perfumes, but no amount
of cleaning could obliterate the marks of the Frank picks and

mm *

,<V '.i H u

chisels. They are only too plainly visible, but serve a purpose,
some being very conveniently supposed to be foot-prints and
finger-marks of the Angel Gabriel. Saladin not only purified
the rock. In 1194 he had the whole building restored, as is
testified by a still existing inscription in gold letters and divided

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into a series of panels, running round the lower inside part
of the Dome and just above the clerestory windows (illustration
150). Below these are seen some of the mosaics and mosaic
windows in the drum, the former ninth, the latter sixteenth cen-
tury work. After Saladin's time the Sakkhrah was restored by
Mohammed Ibn Kelaun in 1327, by Suleiman the Magnificent
in the sixteenth century, and by the late ruler of Turkey and
his immediate predecessors in our own days.

The building (see illustration 151) is an octagon, the angles
of which would, if placed in a circle 180 feet in diameter, touch

(152) South Door of Dome of the Rock.

its circumference. Rising from the centre of the roof of this
octagon (a roof surrounded by a low parapet or wall) — and
borne up on a cylindrical drum, is a great dome or cupola,
not quite symmetrical in dimensions, but for that very reason
all the more striking. It is 78 feet in diameter, and its summit
is 108 feet in height from the pavement outside the edifice.
On the very top is a large crescent, the symbol of Islam, sup-
ported by a pillar consisting of three globes placed one above
the other. It stands twelve feet high. At its base the dome is
slightly narrower than it is a little higher up. It is covered
with strips of lead. Taken as a whole the eight-sided structure

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forming its pedestal, may seem at first sight to be too low to
harmonize with the dimensions of the dome, but the impression
soon wears off, especially when one beholds it from a distance
towering above and elevated by the great platform which itself
is, on an average, about twelve feet higher than the surrounding
and fairly level court.

At the four cardinal points are doors, overshadowed by
porticoes supported by columns that formerly belonged to more
ancient buildings. Illustration 152 shews the southern doorway.

fc» m

(153) Plan of the Haram Area, 1483 — 4.

**»- m in

<v«*C,* w f :

Somewhere, a few yards to the left of the upright structure of
masonry in front of the door-way, probably stood the great
laver or molten sea in the Jewish temple. Underneath, and at
the back of the portico, are seen some of the curiously joined
and veined marble slabs which case the whole lower part of
the great octagon to the height of eighteen feet. To the right,
between the first and second pair of columns, and inside a black
border, are two smaller slabs which, having been sliced from the
same block, shew the same veining. These have been fixed up
edge to edge in such a way that a figure is formed somewhat
resembling the picture of two birds perched on opposite sides

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of a vase. According to the current legend, resembling the
story told by Mr. Rudyard Kipling about "the Butterfly that
stamped," these birds were turned into stone by King Solomon
"as a warning to men not to boast, and to women not to en-
courage them." (See "Tales told in Palestine," page 81 ; or
"Folklore of the Holy Land," page 48). It is supposed by some
that at one time an outer corridor or portico, of which those
still extant are vestiges, ran round the entire building, but this
is unproven. The upper part of the wall above the marble-
casing, some of which is ancient material and carved with
wreaths, is pierced by a row of pointed windows and faced
with earthenware. Before the sixteenth century, as is evident
from the representation of the structure given on Breydenbach's
map and picture of the Haram Area (illustration 153) the
windows were double and the balustrade round the eight-sided
roof was ornamented with little arches supported by small
columns. These still exist, and may sometimes be seen when
the old glazed tiles which cover them fall off, or are otherwise
removed. The first and oldest set of tiles was placed here by
Suleiman the Magnificent (A.D. 1620 — 60). They have several
times since been restored. Some of the older ones had inscrip-
tions shewing that they were made at Damascus, where however
this branch of industry has long ceased to be carried on.*

Illustrations 152 and 154 shew in a general manner the forms
and details of the exterior ornamentation, but being monochrome
they cannot in the slightest degree reproduce the remarkably
beautiful blending of colour in the intricate enamelled ara-
besques, amongst which wind in interlaced Arabic ornamental
lettering, long passages from the Koran, inscribed in white on
an azure-blue ground, producing a marvellously beautiful
effect.

We make our way to the eastern side of the structure,,
where (illustration 151) there is what seems, except that its
sides are open all round, a miniature copy of the larger building.
Here we must stop whilst our feet, shoes and all, are encased
in large slippers, or else bags made of rough sacking, before we
are allowed to enter the Dome of the Rock. This smaller build-
ing constructed like its greater companion, mainly of older
materials, is the celebrated Kubbet es Silsileh, or Dome of the

* Note.— Since the writer of the above notes came to live at Damascus he has-
learned that the ancient furnace for making these glazed tiles used to be situated out-
side the East Gate, where, during the recent levelling of the ground occupied by some
heaps of ruins, it was discovered that they were the ancient glazed-tile factories.

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Chain, because of the belief that in King Solomon's time a
miraculous chain was suspended between heaven and earth
over this particular spot. It was possessed of such remarkable
virtue that whenever two litigants were unable to decide their
dispute they had but to come together to this place and try
each to lay hold of the chain "which would advance to meet
the grasp of him who was in the right, and would elude all
efforts of the other to catch it." One day two men appealed to
the ordeal, one accused the other of having appropriated some
money which he had confided to his keeping, and, swearing that

(154) Tiled Ornamentation of Exterior.

he had not received it back, laid hold of the chain. The sly
debtor, who had cunningly hidden the money in the interior of a
hollow staff which he had in his hand, gave the said staff into
the claimant's, whilst, swearing that he had restored the money
to its owner, he also was enabled to grasp the chain. From
that moment the chain disappeared, feeling no doubt that it had
no chance of maintaining its reputation for legal sagacity in a
"holy city" where such tricks were played. The place however
long retained some of its judicial functions, and according to
Moslem writers perjury is an exceedingly dangerous weapon in
the vicinity of the Dome of the Rock. It is said that the

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Khalifeh 'Omar Abd el Aziz ordered the stewards of his pre-
decessor Suleiman, to give an account of their stewardship
upon oath in front of the Sakkhrah. Only one of them refused
to swear, and paid a thousand dinars rather than do so. The
result was that twelve months later he was the only survivor
of the number.

Leaving these fables aside the Kubbet es Silsileh is, for
many reasons, an exceedingly interesting little structure. Its
plan is one of two concentric figures with respectively six
and eleven columns at their angles. The hexagon enclosed in

ESH SHEFaf.AT JERUSALEI

(155) Crusading Capital.

a polygon allows the seventeen handsome pillars to be all
seen at one time from whichever side you look at them. It is
said (Besant and Palmer, page 87), that Abd el Malik himself
designed this little dome, and that he "personally gave the
architect instructions as to its minutest details. When finished,
he was so pleased with the general effect that he ordered the
Kubbet es Sakkhrah itself to be built on the same model."

During the Crusading period the place was fitted up as the
Chapel of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple. After
the Franks were driven out in 1187 the place was restored to its

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original condition and the mediaeval capitals, which the Christ-
ians had added, were used by the Moslems for other buildings.
Some of them (see illustration 155 taken from Prof. Clermont
Ganneau's "Archaeological Researches"), have been built into
the minaret at the N.W. angle of the Haram Area. The date of
this minaret is A.H. 6gy=A.D. 1297—8. The idea however that
the Kubbet es Silsileh stands on the spot of the Presentation is
not by any means an absurd one. As a matter of fact the great
gate between the Court of the Women and that of the Israelites
in all probability stood within a few feet of the spot, supposing
that the great rock inside the Kubbet es Sakkhrah was the
foundation of the Altar of Burnt-Offerings. In illustration 151
we notice, a little to the left of the Dome of the Chain, the
arcade or "Balance," marking the approximate site of the Great
Council Chamber of the Sanhedrin in the "Inner Temple";
and behind it in the background the gable-roof and dome of
the Mosque El Aksa.

197

CHAPTER XXVIII.

|N the preceding chapter we remarked that during the
Crusading period the Kubbet es Silsileh was known
as "The Chapel of the Presentation of Christ in the
Temple." According to another tradition preserved
in the Norman Chronicle, written about A.D. 1187,
there was also here "a chapel of my lord St. James
the less, the Apostle," because of the supposition that he met
with his martyrdom on this spot, being thrown by the Jews
from the battlements of the Temple. The writer of the Chronicle
confounds James the brother of our Lord, surnamed "the
Just," with James the son of Alphaeus, who was surnamed "the
Less." When speaking of the remains of the tower at the S.E.
corner of the Haram Area we noticed the older and original
tradition concerning the death of St. James the Just. It is given
by Eusebius (H.E. II. 23), who quotes from Hegesippus (about
A.D. 160), and an account of it will be found in Hastingis'
"Dictionary of the Bible," vol. II., page 542, to which I must
refer the reader. Another mediaeval tradition was that Kubbet es
Silsileh was the place where our Lord saved the woman taken
in adultery (St. John viii.) from her accusers.

We now enter the grander Dome of the Rock by its eastern
portal, through a mean and rudely white-washed passage, notic-
ing the Corinthian capitals peeping, as if in protest against
their concealment, through the stucco. Three paces land us
within the magnificent edifice, and our first impression is one
of amazement at its contrast with the wretched entrance-hall;
and also at the mysterious, unearthly effect produced all of
a sudden, after leaving the dazzling sunlight outside, by the
play of subdued light and shadow in the immense building,
which seems, at first glance, to be a forest of magnificently-
coloured columns of parti-coloured marbles, breccia? verde-
antique, porphyry and granite, with beautifully-gilded capitals.

The eight walls of the octagonal structure enclose a space
occupied by three concentric enclosures. The outermost,
bordered by the exterior wall of the building on one side, is
separated from the next inner enclosure by eight piers corre-
sponding to, and about sixteen or seventeen feet distant from,

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(156) The Dome of the Rock, commonly called
the Mosque of Omar.

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

the outer wall. The many coloured mosaic windows differ from
the stained glass ones seen mounted in lead in European
churches, in that they are "true mosaics," or tiny fragments of
glass of different colours, each bit being placed in a separate
plaster frame, the sloping or bevelled edge of which reflects
the same colour as the glass it encloses. These fragments of
glass are most artistically arranged, and their colours, harmonious
though differing, are toned down by a perforated screen of tile-
work, which covers the outer side of the windows, and whilst
protecting them from weather, allows just sufficient light to
illuminate and show up the glass and to pass through into the
edifice.

Between every pair of the eight piers above-mentioned are
two columns with gilded capitals (illustration 156, which is taken
from contiguous though slightly different points of view in the
circular enclosure, looking toward the outer one). At first sight
all seems beautiful and harmonious, but by the time our eyes
have become accustomed to the curious alternations of light
and shadow, our perceptions have also grown more critical, and
we notice that a great quantity of old material has been freely
used in the building. The columns are of unequal length, some of
them, which had seemed to be costly marbles, being merely
fragments of shafts pieced together and covered with cunningly
painted stucco, their bases being of unequal height, as are also
the marble-faced blocks surmounting the capitals and supporting
the richly carved and gilded architrave which, in its turn, bears
up a set of semi-circular arches, three between each pier, richly
adorned with handsome mosaics. Of the general beauty of the
whole, the monochrome photographs can only give faint ideas.
The eight great piers are faced with slabs of veined marble,
ingeniously placed edge to edge so as to form various patterns
like those of olive-wood work. A large number of chandeliers
and lamps of various shapes, for burning the sacred olive-oil, are
suspended from iron bars between the piers or at the end of
chains pendant from the ceilings. These, in the outer and
second enclosure, are of wood covered with stucco and richly
ornamented with painted and gilt arabesques and geometrical
designs.

The second enclosure is bounded on the outside by the eight
piers and intervening sixteen columns just described, and its
inner limit is a circle composed of four very massive pillars,
with three great columns between every couple of piers (illus-
tration 157, shewing the sacred Rock in the foreground). Four

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of these huge columns are monoliths of rose-coloured native
limestone, which probably came from the well-known quarries
west of the city and near the Convent of the Cross, and are
remarkable for at least two reasons. In the first place they
belong to a much more ancient building which stood on this
spot, and of which they are relics. This was proved over thirty
years ago in a strange way. The Kubbet es Sakkhrah was
undergoing repairs, in the course of which it became necessary
to remove part of the flooring, and then it was found that the
Attic pedestals on which these columns now seem to stand, are
mere shams, the true and more ancient ones being still ^in
position at a lower level than that of the present flooring.

This discovery of course opened the question as to what
building the four monoliths originally belonged to. Were they
parts of a circular colonnade surrounding statues of Jupiter
Capitolinus, and of Hadrian in the Temple built by the latter?
or are they of later date ? and did they, as some suppose, belong
to the Church of St. Sophia, or the Divine Wisdom, which
is mentioned by the anonymous author of the "Jerusalem
Breviary," and in the tract of the pilgrim-writer Theodosius,
both of whom are supposed to have written about A.D. 530,
that is, during the age of Justinian?

This question is difficult to decide, especially as a recent Fran-
ciscan writer has tried to make out ("Le Pretiore de Pilate" par.
Pere Barnabe, page 147), that these two writers visited Jerusalem
£ome time before the accession of Justinian. In any case,
however, we have in the second place, in these great monoliths,
specimens illustrating the description given by Procopius the
biographer and panegyrist of Justinian, of the buildings erected
by that Kmperor at Jerusalem, a place so distant from the sea
that it was "difficult for the contrivers of the Temple to intro-
duce columns from elsewhere. But, as the Kmperor was
distressed at the difficulty of the task, God shewed a kind of
stone in the nearest mountains well adapted for the purpose,
whether it existed previously or was now created. In either
case," says Procopius, quaintly, "there is credibility in the
account to those who refer the cause to God. For though we,
measuring everything by human power, believe many things
have been excluded as impossible; yet nothing could be either
difficult or impossible to the God of all. Hence, then, extra-
ordinary columns of great size, and resembling in their colour
the brightness of flame, support the Temple on all sides."
Though indeed this passage refers more especially to the

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columns in the Church of St. Mary, the site of which is occupied
by the present Mosque El Aksa, yet the description exactly
suits the great monoliths in the Kubbet es Sakkhrah.

From the capitals of these columns, and also from the four
great piers, spring semi-circular arches supporting the drum
which is divided into two stories, upper and lower, by a thick
cornice. Of these stories the lower corresponds to the roofing
of the lower sides of the building, and the upper is pierced with
windows, most of which are fitted with glass mosaics. The
whole surface of the interior of the drum is covered with
Byzantine mosaics of different dates, between the seventh and
the fifteenth centuries, and comprises various graceful designs
intermingled with Koranic texts in letters of gold. Above the
clerestory rises the great dome, 75 feet in diameter, and at its
centre, measured from inside the building, 96 feet above the
floor. It is double and constructed of wooden laths nailed to
rafters and girders, and the inner dome is lined inside with
richly painted and gilded plaster, whilst the outer one is covered
outside with sheets of lead.

Four entrances — north, south, east and west — give access
from the second enclosure to the great central one. The doors
are in a beautifully gilt screen of hammered iron-work, the
handicraft (of the Crusaders, and the gift probably of some
Bourbon monarch as yet unidentified. This grille, with its
finials of the lilies of St. Joseph (illustration 157), runs be-
tween the columns and pillars supporting the dome, and is
fixed on a marble bench, so that the visitor has to be careful
when crossing the latter, because it is rather higher inside than
it is outside. However, this bench and the pedestals of the
columns afford good standing points whence to overlook the
most interesting object, namely, the sacred and mysterious Rock
or Sakkhrah, which has bestowed its name on the whole
building, enclosing it as in a triply lined casket. This rock,
which is now believed by most authorities to have been the
foundation of the great Altar of Burnt-Offerings in the Jewish
Temple, is surrounded by a high wooden balustrade or screen,
which makes it difficult to overlook it conveniently.

According to Jewish traditions adopted by the Moslems this
marks the exact centre of the world, and the spot whence the
Almighty took the dust out of which He formed Adam. More
interesting is it that the south-eastern corner of the rock, abut-
ting on a great pier, is quite unapproachable. It was just over

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this corner that, according to the Talmud (Tractate "Middoth,"
with Rabbi Bartenora's Commentary — see P.E.F. "Quarterly
Statement" 1887, pages 117, 118), the boundary-line between the
territories of Benjamin and Judah passed, so that "the south-
eastern corner alone" was "in the portion of Judah." And as
Jacob blessed Benjamin saying, "Benjamin shall ravin as a
wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey" (Genesis xlix.
27), which is interpreted "in his possession the Sanctuary shall
be built" (Targum of Onkelos), that which sanctifies the blood
must be in no other than the portion of Benjamin. On this
account they did not make a foundation to the altar at the
south-eastern corner, because it was not in the portion of the
"Raviner." Many other traditional associations and legends
cluster round this rock, but we need not waste paper and ink
in recording what is mentioned in most guide-books.

At the south-western corner, enclosed in a shrine, is a slight
depression said now to be the foot-print of Mohammed, even as
in the twelfth century, it was said to be that of our Lord. Above
it, and in the same domed shrine, is a gilt urn enclosing, it is
said, "two hairs of Mohammed's beard." Besides this the
banner of "the Prophet" wrapped round his lance, and the banner
of Omar are also shewn. A couple of yards distant, and built
against the great piers at this corner, is a sort of triangular ledge,
supported on curious little marble colonnettes, with shafts like
plaited work, and mediaeval capitals once adorned with carved
heads of cherubs, whose faces have been mutilated by icono-
clastic Moslems. Colonnettes exactly similar are said to exist
in buildings in Italy, but the guardians of the Haram gravely
tell us that these are the handiwork of Solomon, who knew
the art of kneading and moulding stone, in the same way that a
pastry-cook kneads dough and forms it into different shapes.
There are similar colonnettes in the cave below.

Forty-five years ago, when the present writer paid his first
visit to the Dome of the Rock, there was fixed on this ledge or
stand "the shield of Hamza," which has now disappeared, but
of which an illustration was furnished with one of our very
first "Walks." Close to this "shield" were some fragments of
arch-stones carved with the ornament technically known as
a "chevron." These, too, have now vanished, but were then
shewn as bits of the saddle-trappings of El Barak. In the
Moslem drawings, a similar zig-zag ornament is seen along the
edge of the saddle-cloth, and on the crupper. Copies of this

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drawing may now and then be picked up in the bazaars at
Damascus.

"The entrance to the cave," underneath the rock, "is by a
flight of steps on the south-east," says Sir Charles Wilson,
"passing under a doorway with a pointed arch, which looks
like an addition of the Crusaders; the chamber is not large,
with an average height of six feet; its sides are so covered with
plaster and whitewash that it is impossible to see any chisel-
marks, but the surface appears to be rough and irregular."

Moslems believe that when Mohammed ascended from the
Sakkhrah to Heaven on El Barak, the Rock wished to follow,
but was held down by the Angel Gabriel, whose finger prints
are seen above. Ever since then the Rock has been suspended
in the air, thus forming the cave, the hollow-sounding wall of
which was placed there because pilgrims who passed under the
rock feared lest it should fall and crush them.

An ancient Arab author relates very naively that "when I
first visited the Sakkhrah, I durst not enter the cave, because of
its darkness, and sins which I had committed, but afterwards,
when I beheld greater oppressors and sinners than I knew
myself to be going in and coming out safely, I, after watching
for some time, gathered courage and also entered and beheld
the marvels."

The said marvels now shewn, are the praying-places of
Abraham, Elkhudr, David, Solomon and Mohammed. In the
rock above the latter is a large hollow or dent. Concerning this
it is related that Mohammed's prayer was so eloquent that the
rock approached and listened spell-bound. However, the prayer
ended so abruptly, that, on rising from his knees, the prophet
struck his head against the rock, and caused the said dent. We
need not waste the reader's time or patience by relating other
legends equally childish, respecting the tongue, still shewn, with
which the Rock sang Allah's praises, the column shaft with
which it is kept in position so that it cannot T>e blown away
by the wind, or the green slab near the northern Gate of the
building, which once contained nineteen brass nails (keeping
in place, in all probability, some mediaeval brass), but of which
at present only three and a-half remain; the rest having been
extracted by Iblis, who, knowing that with the disappearance
of each nail a cycle of the existence of the universe would close,
sneaked into the sanctuary, when the guardian Archangel Gab-
riel's back was turned, and pulled out fifteen and a-half. "Giben

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it baksheesh, and boot it here," says the Sheikh of the Mosque
to the amused tourist, "and you will go to Heaben." Arabs
cannot pronounce the letter "p" or "v.n

(158) The Open-air Pulpit.

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CHAPTER XXIX.

ESIDES the spots connected with absurd traditions
three things claim our attention as of great and
genuine interest. These are the hole through the
rock, the cave itself, and the so-called "Bir el
Arwah," or "Well of the Spirits," the opening into
which is covered with a marble slab.

This hole has in all probability been formed by enlarging
into one, the two "narrow nostril-like" orifices through which, as
the Talmud tells us (Middoth, chapter iii. 5. Palestine Explora-
tion Fund "Quarterly Statement," 1887, page 118), "the blood
poured upon the western and southern foundations" of the
altar, might run down, and, as Bartenora explains, "become
mixed together in the canal for water which was in the court,
and thence pass out into the valley of Kedron, where the gar-
deners purchased it for fertilizing purposes from the treasurers
of the Temple. Long after the destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus, the Bordeaux pilgrim, A.D. 333, speaks of this opening,
and tells us that at that time, the Jews came once a year to
anoint "the pierced rock, 'lapis pertusus,' when they gave
themselves up to their lamentations." This identification, first
proposed by Williams in his "Holy City," is now generally
accepted, as is also the belief that the cave answers "to the
hollow or pit which was under the altar," and had from time to
time to be flushed out and cleansed. In this case the hollow
sound produced when one stamps upon the slab closing the Bir
el Arwah, would lead one to believe that the cavity underneath
the floor of the cave must be the sewer through which the water
and blood were drained from the sanctuary. We must notr
however, forget that the great underground passage in connexion
with the priests' bath-rooms in Beth-Moked, by which those
who had contracted ceremonial defilement could leave the
Temple precincts unseen, through the gate Tadi, is supposed by
Sir Charles Warren to pass right under the cave, and that its
presence may account for the hollow sound. This, however,
is a question which, though very interesting, is not likely to
be solved for a long time to come, as even "baksheesh," all
powerful in other cases, has utterly failed to obtain permission
for explorers to lift the slab, and discover what is underneath,,

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or whether, as some people think, both the above theories are
wrong, and that beneath the floor there are secret chambers
containing the long-lost Ark of the Covenant and other treasures
of the Jewish Temple.* That the holy vessels are still concealed
somewhere about the sanctuary precincts is the universal belief
amongst the Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem; and for that reason
no strict Israelite will venture to set foot within the enclosure,
for fear lest he tread upon the spot where the temple furniture
is buried, and, as a punishment, die during the year. To this
day the older sheikhs of the Haram relate how, about forty or

(159) Staircase and Basin el Kas.

fifty years ago, one of the Rothschilds on visiting Jerusalem,
had himself carried in a chair through the Temple-area rather
than venture to set his foot on its holy ground.

We now leave the Dome of the Rock. As we emerge from
the cave we notice a long platform upborne by little marble
columns where an ancient copy of the Koran, said, wrongly of
course, to have belonged to the Khalif Omar, is preserved.
Inside the great south door, on the right and left, are railed off
spaces where learned Moslems may be seen seated cross-legged
on the rich carpets presented to the Haram by the late Sultan,

* See Appendix II.

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and engaged in studying their sacred books. A few steps land
us outside the building, and again passing the open-air marble
pulpit (illustration 158) and through the four-fold arcade close
by, and on the approximate site of the water-gate of the
"inner temple," we descend southward by a broad flight of

•2

JH
3.

twenty steps, each nine inches, or half a cubit of eighteen
inches high, the exact height of the steps in the ancient
temple, as the writer has ascertained by personal measurement
(illustration 159). At its foot, to the right and left, are "mas-
tabehs," or prayer platforms, overshadowed by stately cypresses

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and olive trees, whilst right in front of us (see foreground
to illustration 159), is a great circular basin called "El Kas,"
about three feet deep, with steps leading down into it. In its
very middle is another round basin formed by a circular wall
of marble slabs. In the centre again of this, and resting
on a pedestal, is a semi-spherical font-like stone vessel,
from which, through eight perforations in its rim, gushes water
that has come through the recently laid iron pipes from the
famous "Sealed Fountain" close to Solomon's Pools S.W. of
Bethlehem. A little further to the east are groups of men filling
skins and jars from the cisterns with which this part of the
Temple-area is honeycombed. These cisterns are of very great
size and of remarkable form. One just under the S.E. corner

(161) Porch of Mosque el Aksa.

of the great platform, from which we have just descended (see
background to illustration 159), is cut deeply into the rock and
looks on the plan like an anchor with one of its arms broken
off. Another, close by and called "the Great Sea," will contain,
as was ascertained by Sir Charles Wilson forty years ago, two
million gallons of water, whilst the total number of gallons
which could at that time be stored in the different reservoirs
inside the Area probably exceeded, as he estimated, ten millions
(see "Recovery of Jerusalem," page 17).

During the time since Sir C. Wilson's investigations the
storage-room has greatly increased, many new cisterns having
been obtained, partly by recent construction as in the case of
those in front of the western fa9ade of the Golden Gate, and

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partly by cleaning out and repairing ancient tanks, or by building
up and cement-lining old underground vaults, one of the three
corridors leading up from the Triple Gate, for instance. At the
same time a great rain-collector has been made by paving with
good flagstones the whole of the Area inside the S.E. corner
from the eastern wall of the city to the eastern gate of the
Mosque El Aksa, so that at the present time, fully double the

(162) Galleries to Western Huldah Gate.

amount of rain-water can be stored compared with the above-
mentioned, namely 10,000,000 gallons. Though, as we have
shewn, many of the places now used as cisterns were not
originally intended for that purpose, as for example the rock
chambers under the Beth-Moked, the great gate passage under-
neath Sebil Kaiet Bai (illustration 160), and another just east
of the Mosque of El Barak, yet at all times the question of
the water supply of the Temple-area was an important one,

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and even at the risk of being wearisome to the reader, I must
call attention to two remarkable points.

The first is that the so-called "Great Sea" and adjoining
tanks are very near the position where following the description
of Middoth (chapter v. 4), we should look for the rplJn TO
or "well of the captivity," so called because constructed by the
exiles who returned from Babylon. The second point is that
the question of the Temple water-supply throws light on our
Lord's conversation with Nicodemus (St. John iii.) who has
been identified with Nicodemus ben Gorion, a famous con-
temporary of our Saviour, and several times mentioned in
Talmudic writings as having charge of the water-supply, es-
pecially of the Temple, where much was required daily. If
this identification, which some do not accept, be correct, then,

(163) Column in Quarry.

in our Lord's reference to water we have an example of
the marvellous way in which He always adapted His teaching
to the needs of His hearers, illustrating it by incidents or
circumstances in their daily lives. The following story of
Nicodemus is related in the Talmud (Taanith, fol. 19, col. 2): —

"It happened once when all Israel went up to the feast at
Jerusalem that they had no water to drink. Nicodemon ben
Gorion then asked of a friendly proprietor the loan of twelve
cisterns of water, promising to refill them on a certain day, or,
failing this, to pay him twelve talents of silver. The day came;
it brought no rain, but a demand from the owner of the cisterns
for a discharge of the obligation. Nicodemon answered that the
day was not yet ended, and that he was, therefore, not bound
to pay. In the afternoon the demand for either the money or
the water was renewed. Nicodemon replied that he had yet

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time as the sun had not yet set. The creditor laughed, and
went to his bath in high spirits, saying, 'There has been no
rain the whole year, and it is impossible that it should come
before sunset.' Nicodemon, however, went sorrowfully to the
Temple, and prayed saying, 'O Lord of the Universe! Thou
knowest that I have not undertaken this obligation either for
my own glory or that of my father's house, but solely for Thine
honour, that those who keep the feast may have water.' At
once the skies were overcast with clouds, and the rain fell in
such torrents that the cisterns were filled to overflowing. On
leaving the Temple, Nicodemon met the owner of the cisterns,
and in his turn demanded of the latter payment for the excess
of water. 'I know,' said the man, 'that the Holy One,' Blessed

(164) Column inside Railing.

be He ! has convulsed the universe for thy sake, but the rain
came after sunset, and therefore I am still entitled to my twelve
talents.' Hereupon Nicodemon again went into the Temple and
prayed: 'O Ruler of the Universe! let it be manifest that Thou
hast beloved ones in the world.' At once the clouds dispersed
and the sun shone forth."

We continue our walk southward. Right in front of us is
the series of seven arches forming the porch of the great
Mosque El Aksa. Delaying for the present our visit to this
building, we descend, through the railed-off space seen just
to the left of the great central arch (illustration 161)* down the
staircase leading to the two great parallel dark passages or

* Only five out of the seven arches are seen in this picture.

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galleries conducting to the vestibule of the double or western
Huldah Gate (illustration 162). Next to the Sacred Rock this
is the most interesting object to be seen in the Temple-area,
being an undoubted relic of the Temple of our Lord's time.
"Huldah" means "mole," and this gate, as well as that which
once stood on the site of the present "Triple" Gate were
so called because of the long underground passages by which
people coming through these gates approached, or else left
the higher levels of the Temple-area. It was probably through
this very gateway, vestibule and galleries, that yearly, at the
Feast of Tabernacles, the great procession bearing water from
Siloam swept. Standing here, we feel that we are on holy
ground, for it is almost certain that our Lord's eyes mus|t
have rested on these very columns and ceiling adorned by
Herodian carvings of the symbolic vine of Judah. The huge
monolithic column in the foreground and middle of the picture
is, besides this, interesting, because in its dimensions it exactly
tallies with those described by Josephus (Antiq. xv. 5), as
belonging to the Royal Cloister which ran along the outer
Temple platform above its southern wall, and at right angles
to the twin passages from the Double Gate. "The thickness
of each pillar was such that three men might with their arms
extended," as I have often verified by actual experiment on
this pillar, "fathom it round and join their hands again."
Here and there, in ancient quarries (illustration 163) on the
hill-sides near Jerusalem, may be seen unfinished columns still
attached to the native rock. One such is now carefully pre-
served inside a railing just in front of the Russian cathedral
N.W. of the city (illustration 164). Its dimensions, as Professor
Clermont Ganneau shews in his "Archaeological Researches,"
exactly tally with those given by Josephus as the measurements
of those belonging to Herod's Cloister.

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CHAPTER XXX.

JETRACING our steps through the long barrel-arched
galleries we pass through the porch and enter the
great seven-aisled Masjid El Aksa (illustration 165)
built on the site and with the materials, as most
authorities believe, of Justinian's great Basilica of
the Theotokos (or "Mother of God"). The Crusaders
turned the mosque into a church dedicated to the Presentation
of the Virgin. The porch, supposed by Sir Charles Wilson to be
the work of the Knights Templars, has fitted into the wall an
inscription, stating that its builder was El Melek Muadhem Isa,
nephew to Saladin. The interior of the structure is arranged like
a Christian basilica, except that, as it has no apse, the plan is
like the letter T. The central aisle runs between two rows of
six massive but stunted columns, with heavy debased Corinthian
capitals of Byzantine times. One of the columns is missing
and a rude octagonal white-washed pier fills its place. A great
wooden architrave running above the capitals supports a row of
arches, above which come two rows of windows. The transept
contains some magnificent columns of rose-coloured limestone
and other materials, but as they all once belonged to more
ancient buildings, the pedestals differ in height and shape, and
so also do the capitals, some being beautiful Corinthian marbles,
and others displaying basket-work moulded in plaster. All the
arches are pointed. A few of the mosaic windows are handsome
but nothing like those in the Sakkhrah. Most of the aisles are
covered with whitewash, whilst the capitals are painted light
brown or yellow. The interior of the dome, however, and the
part just beneath it, are richly adorned with mosaics and marble
wainscot. The arabesques and mosaic are like, though different
in design, to those in the Dome of the Rock. .

At the southern end of the central aisle is the great "mihrab,"
or prayer-niche, flanked by graceful marble columns and lined
in its lower part with variegated marble, and in its upper with
mosaics. There is an inscription recording its restoration by
Saladin (illustration 166). Immediately to the right is a cedar-
wood "mumbar," or Mohammedan pulpit, with a high-peaked
Saracenic canopy over it. It is a remarkable and very beautiful

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piece of cabinet work, inlaid with nacre and ivory. An Arabic
inscription of inlaid work running along the railing on either
side of the steps and other parts of the structure, tells us that
it was made in 1168 by an artist from Aleppo, Hamid Ben
Dhafar, and by command of Nureddin. It was brought to
Jerusalem by order of Saladin. Just beyond this pulpit the
picture gives us a glimpse of an iron-gilt grille like that running
between the columns surrounding the great Rock in the
Sakkhrah. Inside it are two small "mihrabs." One is dedicated
to "Isa," i.e., Jesus, whose reputed foot-print is shewn here,
and the other to Moses. The small mediaeval marble capitals
were adorned with figures of birds, now mutilated.

(165) Nave of Mosque el Aksa.

Just beyond the right hand edge of the picture are a couple
of columns standing so near each other that it is difficult for
an ordinary-sized person to pass between them. They are
called the columns of ordeal, because Moslems believe that
only those who can manage to slip through between them can
enter Paradise. In 1881 a Mohammedan, who was rather too
obese, attempted to win Heaven by squeezing through the
gap, but died in the attempt. Since that time iron stanchions
have been placed there in order to discourage this superstitious
practice.*

* There is another similar pair of columns in one of the eastern aisles. Some other
mosques, for instance that of Amr at Cairo, have pairs of columns to which the same
superstitious belief, a caricature of the Gospel teaching concerning the narrow gate,
attaches.

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(166) Southern End of El Aksa with Pulpit.
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Just to the left of these columns, and between them and the
above-mentioned iron-gilt grating, is seen a door-way leading
out of El Aksa to the top of the pile of ruins which were once
part of the Templars' quarters here. A couple of rooms here
are generally inhabited by the "hareem," or womenkind of one
of the mosque officials, but the prospect of the baksheesh will
induce their lord and master to order them to remain behind
closed doors whilst the Frank visitor steps out to survey the
really fine view extending from the Mount of Offence on the
east to the Hill of Evil Counsel and Mount Zion on the south
and west. In the latter direction the great new tower of the
Dormition Church is very conspicuous. At its feet crouches the

re*RJ>««

(167) Tomb of David and Site of
Dormition Church.

group of buildings known since 1560 as the Tomb of David
(illustration 167), and containing the Coenaculum (illustration 168),
or chamber in which, according to tradition, our Saviour insti-
tuted the Lord's Supper; and, later on, the Holy Spirit descended
on the assembled disciples at Pentecost. Though the apartment
is not really older than the fourteenth century, yet the tradition
locating the Ccenaculum here is at least a thousand years older;
and there is really reason to believe that the early Christians
in Jerusalem had their first place of united worship somewhere
close by. The flight of six stone steps seen in the background
near the right hand corner leads to a room from which, through
a barred door one can look into another containing a cenotaph

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covered with gaudy cloths, and said by the Moslems to be
situated exactly above the monument of David in the lower
basement inaccessible to Christians. The tradition is altogether
worthless.

The buildings of which the Ccenaculum is a part, were,
from the i4th to the i6th century, the Convent of the Franciscan
monks, who after various grievous persecutions were finally
expelled about 1560. In illustration 167, taken before the
building of the Dormition Church and Convent began, we
see, in the lower right-hand corner, the vacant site on which

(168) The Ccenaculum, supposed Chamber of
The Last Supper.

they now stand between the Neby Daud buildings and the walled
enclosure of the old American Mission cemetery (illustration
169). The graves seen in the foreground belong to the ceme-
teries of the Greek, Latin, and Armenian communities, and till
a few years ago, were not walled in as they now are. Many of
the tombstones have carved on them the working tools of the
person buried beneath, for instance, the tailor's scissors, the
stonecutter's chisel and mallet, the mason's trowel, and also
the bishop's crozier. The circular dry-stone enclosure near the
left-hand edge of the picture marks the resting-place of a Mos-
lem saint. We re-enter El Aksa, which during the Crusading
period was, besides being as we have already mentioned a
Church of the Virgin, also called the "Templum Solomonis."

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The buildings adjoining it east and west were at first occupied
by the Latin king, but when in 1118 Hugh de Payens and his
eight companions formed a knightly order for the purpose of
escorting and guarding pilgrims visiting Palestine, King Baldwin
I. gave up these buildings for their use, and the new order was
henceforth known as "the order of the Brethren of the Temple
of Solomon," or shorter, "Knights Templars."

(169) Cemetery adjoining the Tomb of David.

The transept of Bl Aksa opens on the west into a great
double (it was originally triple) mediaeval hall divided by a
row of square piers which support the spandrel vaulting. This
great hall, which is said by some to have been the knights'
fencing school, and by others their refectory or their oratory,
is entered by a small crusading porch (illustration 170), flanked
by grouped marble columns. The eastern end of the great
hall is separated from El Aksa proper by a railing, and from
its western portion by a wall. This part is separated as a
mosque for the use of women. The eastern transept of El
Aksa opens into a long vaulted and whitewashed chamber
called "the Mosque of Omar." Its mihrab is remarkable, because

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flanked on either side with double twisted columns, the capitals
of which are carved with grotesque animal forms. These curious
twisted columns seen here, and also at the Bab-es-Silsileh, are
popularly called by Moslems, "The intestines of the avaricious,"
and are believed to have been kneaded in stone by Solomon as
an object-lesson to his people, in order to shew them what
would happen at the last day to the entrails of the miserly

(170) Porch to Templars' Hall.

and covetous, who, because they lacked "bowels of mercy" in
this world would receive bowels of stone in the world to come.

Through a low door in the northern wall of this room, which
is said to have served the Templars as an arsenal, we pass
successively the chapel called by Moslems "El-Arbain," and
"the standing places of Zacharias and his son John the Bap-
tist." The larger of these has part of its apse still visible on

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the outside of the building. We also note a fine rose-window
with six lights over the i2th century portal opening from El
Aksa eastwards. At the end of the aisle further north is a
cistern called "The Well of the Leaf," from a worthless legend
connected with it. More worthy of notice is the spot in the
pavement of the central aisle near its northern entrance, and
called "The Tomb of the Sons of Aaron." It marks the last
resting-place of some of the murderers of Thomas a Becket,
who, as the author of "The Holy City," quoting the English
Chronicler Hovenden, tells us (vol. ii. page 309) came on a
penitential visit to Jerusalem, where they died and were buried
on this spot.* Their epitaph, now totally effaced, ran, translated
into English, thus: "Here lie the wretches who martyred the
blessed Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury." However, this
story of the pilgrimage of the knights, and their death at
Jerusalem, is, by some writers, believed to be a legend at
variance with historical facts.

On leaving El Aksa visitors generally go to see Solomon's
Stables and the Triple Gate galleries. Close to the city wall
and a few yards north of the latter is a low building with two
domes marking the spot where, according to Eastern legends,
Solomon used to sit watching and controlling the evil spirits
who at his command were raising the enormous structures
whose ruins are seen at Jerusalem, Baalbec and Palmyra. Here,
according to the same myths, his corpse remained seated for
forty years leaning on his staff of carob-wood till the latter,
eaten hollow by a worm, broke, and when the king's dead
body fell to the ground the Jan knew, though not before, that
their master was dead and they were free. We now traverse,
proceeding westward, the open space north of the great plat-
form.

Our last illustration (171), shews us the extremely interesting
N.W. corner, rich in historical and Scriptural associations. The
eight-sided domed building to the left is "Kubbet Es Sakkhra
Es Saghira," the Dome of the Little Rock, so-called from the
legend that when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar,
and its inhabitants taken to Babylon, they carried with them
into exile a fragment of the Sacred Rock. When they returned

* "Hovenden relates, that having been admitted to penance by Pope Alexander III.
they went to Jerusalem."

"Et ex praecepto Papae in monte nigro (Query, Jebel Musa), pcenitentiam agentes
>ierunt et sunt Jerosolymis sepulti ante ostium Templi. Quarurn superscriptio hasc est.
ic jacent miseri qui martyrizaverunt beatum Thomam archiepiscopum Cantuariensum."
D. Savile's Scriptores Aug. p. 522.

obieru

Ap. Savile's Scriptores Aug. p. 522.

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seventy years later, they brought it back with them and de-
posited it reverently on the spot where Solomon had offered up
his prayer (I Kings viii. 23 — 24) at the consecration of the first
Temple. Hence this building is also sometimes called Kubbet
Suleiman. Exactly the same legend attaches, however, also to
another small building on the great platform, and north of the
Dome of Mohammed's Ascension. In the background, to the
right of the Dome of the Little Rock, is the minaret into
which was built columns and capitals taken from the Crusading

(171) N.W. Corner of Temple-area, shewing
Staircase to Antonia.

Chapel of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, the modern
Kubbet es Silsileh. At the foot of this minaret is seen a
winding-staircase leading up to the southern entrance to the
Turkish barracks on the site of the Antonia. There must,
at all times subsequent to the Maccabean period, have been
a staircase at this point and leading up to the Castle. This
staircase is, in fact, the modern representative of one which
stood on the same spot, and on which, as we read in Acts
xxi. 40, St. Paul stood "and beckoned with the hand unto
the people And when there was made a great silence, he

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spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue." The story of the
Apostle's experiences at Jerusalem becomes very vivid and
life-like as we stand on the spot represented by the photograph.
There is something else, however, to be noticed besides the
foregoing. Immediately to the right of the staircase is a care-
fully cut rock-hewn scarp, and at its foot the level floor of the
Haram Area westward is also seen to consist of carefully cut
rock. The lower part of the houses in the background to the
left of the minaret is also scarped rock. This fact takes us
back in thought to the middle of the second century B.C.
Before that time a rocky height dominated the Temple-area at
its N.W. corner, stretching a good deal further south than does
the rock on which the Turkish barracks now stand, as the
Roman barracks, the Antonia, stood before them. On that
hill-top was situated in the days of Nehemiah, a palace, or to
use the Hebrew term, "Birah" (Neh. ii. 8). At the time of the
Maccabean rising its site was occupied by a fort called "the
Baris," the Greek form of the name Birah. The Graeco-Syrian
garrison of this castle molested the Jews going up to the Temple
to worship, by flights of arrows. In the time of Simon Macca-
bseus the garrison was forced to surrender, and then Simon,
acting for his people, "thought it their best way and most to
their advantage, to level the very mountain itself upon which
the citadel happened to stand, so that the Temple might be
higher than it. ... And having induced the multitude to a
compliance .... they all set themselves to the work, and lev-
elled the mountain, and in that work spent both day and night
without intermission, which cost them three whole years before
it was removed." The scarps and levelled floor, a gigantic piece
of work, are believed to be the result of those three years of
constant labour. There are some authorities, however, who
think, that in the passage just quoted (Antiq. Bk. xiii. vi. 7),
the Jewish historian refers to the rock-cuttings on the Akra-hill
east of the Church of the Sepulchre. It is an open question.

We leave the Temple-area by the gate at its N.W. corner
close to the above-mentioned minaret. Up a winding staircase
and through a short street we emerge into the Via Dolorosa.
Following it eastward past the Chapel of the Flagellation, we
turn up the first street to the left, a street of stairs ascending
Bezetha. In this quarter are the remains of several ancient
mediaeval churches, especially Deir el Adas, and St. Peter's,
out these need not detain us. The way leads past the great
modern Moslem school El Mamunieh, interesting because

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recently built on the site of a once magnificent Church of St.
Mary Magdalene; and also because in some rooms set apart
therein as the Government Museum, may be seen many of the
interesting objects found by Dr. F. Bliss and Mr. Macalister
in the course of their various excavations. From hereabouts
one gets a glimpse of the low-lying houses and open spaces
just north and west of St. Anne's Church. In our Lord's day
this part was outside the city. In Crusading times the "Juiverie,"
or Jewry, was situated here. We pass the Gate called Herod's,
probably because during the Middle Ages the house of Herod
Antipas was shewn by tradition somewhere between it and
the Via Dolorosa. The name of Deir El Adas has been sup-
posed, without sufficient proof however, to be derived from
the name "Herodes." A winding path between some poor
Moslem buildings brings us to the door of the C.M.S. Girls'
School, situated on the city wall just above the so-called Sol-
omon's Quarries. From its roof there is an excellent view of
the city. Here we can see the relation of the different quarters
to each other and to their dividing valleys. It is an excellent
spot from which to gather an idea as to the relation of the
different sites to each other, so that we may form some
opinion about the gradual development of Jerusalem during
past ages into what we now behold.

225

CHAPTER XXXI.

|E will now briefly explain the historical evolution of
the city, and illustrate by a series of specially drawn
diagrams. On well-known Egyptian monuments and
documents dating back to the isth century B.C.,
Jerusalem is mentioned by the name of Uru-Salima,
which means "the strong, sound, impregnable city,
or "the city of peace," or "security." Of peace, because of its
strength, which ensured security to the citizens. It was a hill
fortress garrisoned by Egyptian troops, and probably occupied
much the same position as that of the present citadel between
the head of the "Maktesh" valley, where the pool of Hezekiah
now is, and the upper valley of Hinnom. The city was also
known as "Jebus," or rather "Yebus." This name, as is shewn
by Colonel Conder ("The First Bible"— pp. 34, 35), is derived
from the ancient Akkadian, and signifies "town of safety," or
"of rest." "Hence it appears that the two names of the city,
which were used simultaneously, were of the same signification,
'Jerusalem' being Amorite or Semitic, and 'Jebus' the Hittite or
Mongolic title of the town." This leads us to suspect that the
inhabitants, not counting the Egyptian garrison, were a mixed
race, a suspicion which is confirmed by Scripture. We are told
respecting the population, in Ezek. xvi. 3, 45, "Thy father was
an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite." "Your mother was an
Hittite, and your father an Amorite." It was probably an agri-
cultural community, cultivating the surrounding hill-terraces and
also the well-watered "King's dale," where Melchizedek met and
blessed Abraham, and dwelling, like many of the modern fellahin
of Siloam, in rock-dwellings on the slopes of Moriah, south of
the present Temple-area and on the declivities of Zion. In times
of danger they would retreat to and find shelter in the fortified
acropolis, or castle.

When the Israelites took possession of Palestine, the children
of Judah ravaged these low-lying settlements with fire and sword
(Judges i. 7, 8), although they belonged to the territory of Ben-
jamin, and the population was afterward increased by a colony
from that tribe. "And the children of Benjamin did not drive
out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem: but the Jebusites

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day"
(circa 1425 B.C.). Forty years later, "Jebus, which is Jerusalem"
was still "the city of a stranger" (Judges xix. 10 — 12). The
Jebusites were not subdued till the time of David, who took
the lower part of the city by force (Jos. "Ant." vii. 3, i — 2). The

(172) The City of David, B.C. 1016.

fortified town on the heights holding out, was at last taken by
Joab and his men, who got into it through the Tsinnor, trans-
lated "gutter" (2 Sam. v. 8), probably an underground passage or
drain. Their exploit was, seventy years ago, successfully imitated
by the fellahin, who obtained possession of modern Jerusalem in
a similar manner.

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

Having taken it, David and Joab united the upper city to the
lower by building walls, north, west and south. When David
died, B.C. 1016, the whole circumvallation was incomplete, there
being (diagram 172), a gap or "breach" on the eastern side,
or "Millo." This was filled up by Solomon, who executed the
plans of his father, and having built the Temple on the summit

(173) The City of Solomon, B.C. 976.

of Moriah, and a palace, just south of it, rounded off the work
(diagram 173), by building Millo, and repairing "the breaches
of the city of David his father" (i Kings xi. 27). The use of the
term "Zion," and "Daughter of Zion," as an appellation for the
whole city of Jerusalem, comprising the city of David, the
Millo, Temple and palace-buildings, probably began at this time..

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

and is adopted by prophets, psalmists and evangelists when
speaking of the earthly Jerusalem and the Jewish nation as types
of the Heavenly City and the Church of God. For instances see
Psalms Ixv. i ; Ixxxiv. 7 ; xcvii. 8 ; Hebrews xii. 22 ; Revelation
xiv. i.

(174) At time of Destruction by Nebuchadnezzar
B.C. 588.

As the city increased in extent both northward and southward
during the reigns of the successors of Solomon, fresh fortifica-
tions were added. We are specially told of such towers, gates
and walls having been erected by Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah and
Manasseh (2 Chron. xxvi. 9; xxvii. 3; xxxii. 5; xxxiii. 14). In the
reign of Josiah (B.C. 634 — 610), there was a special quarter,

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

called the "Maktesh," or "mortar hollow," which was frequented
by foreign merchants, silversmiths, and jewellers (Zephaniah i.
n). This has been identified, in great probability, with the
deep hollow now occupied by the Pool of Hezekiah, the
Muristan, and the three bazaars, and in all periods subsequent

(175) As Restored by Nehemiah, B.C. 429.

to that of the Jewish kings was, as it is still, the chief centre of
commerce and traffic inside the city walls. Diagram 174 shews
the probable extent of the city at the time of the Babylonian
Captivity (B.C. 588), when the Temple, palaces and city walls
were destroyed. When, at the close of the seventy years'

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

captivity, the children and some of the older people amongst
the exiles returned, the Temple first, and later on the outer walls,
were re-built on the old foundations, but not the palace. Hence
the extent of the city was much the same as it had been at
the time of its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. Diagram 175

•-—-hJ&rf*.. ^ $*"""* m

(176) In the Time of our Lord.

shews the site of the city in B.C. 429, as restored by Nehemiah.
It was practically the same in our Lord's time (A.D. 33).

Diagram 176 shews the Temple-area enlarged by Herod, who
included in its quadrangle the space to the south, where the
palace had stood south-east of the Temple; and part of the Millo
south of the Sanctuary; in fact, the space which we have

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

several times mentioned as extending from Wilson's Arch south-
ward to the S.W. angle, and thence as far as the Double Gate.
Along and inside this, west to east, stretched his great Stoa, or
Hall, with its three cathedral-like aisles supported on a hundred
and sixty-two mighty columns. Herod's palace, castle and gar-
dens were on the western hill. Fig. i on this diagram shews

(177) The Legionary Camp, A.D. 70 — 132.

the possible position of the High Priest's palace; fig. 2, that of
the Asmonean palace and Herod Agrippa's house; fig. 3, the
Xystus; and fig. 4, the council-chamber close to the gate
Shallechet.

At the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, A.D. 70, the whole
city was destroyed with the exception of the west wall of the

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

Upper City, which was preserved that it might serve for the
protection of the Legionary Camp (diagram 177), established on
the hill top; (now occupied by the Citadel, the compound of
the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the
Jews, and the Armenian and Jewish quarters), and the three
towers, Phasaelus, Hippicus and Mariamne. For an interesting

W-3W <f ^f^^/f^^^^^^\

~ -t- 1

$b -a- <* >*• -t r-e.">l-

(178) ^lia Capitolina, A.D. 135.

account of this legionary camp I must refer the reader to the
late Sir C. Wilson's valuable article in the Palestine Exploration
Fund "Quarterly Statement" for April, 1905, and also to his
book "Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre" (pages 142 — 148).
Roman and foreign merchants and such Jews as had taken no
part in the war, would settle down amidst the ruins of the

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

ancient city for purposes of trade. It is not likely that Jewish
or Christian settlers would have elected to take up their abode
in close proximity to the pagan squatters. It seems therefore
that the very ancient tradition is extremely credible, that the
early Christians, who returned from Pella, settled to the south

(179) Modern Jerusalem.

of the city, where, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Hadrian,
A.D. 130 (see Williams' "Holy City," vol. I. page 206 and foot-
note), a Christian church and seven Jewish synagogues existed.
As a matter of course, both Jews and Christians would settle
as far as possible from the pagans, who, as seems very likely,

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

lived just north of the camp close to a temple of Venus erected
on the spot where the Church of the Sepulchre now stands.
After the insurrection headed by Bar Cochba had been quelled,
Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem and called it JElia Capitolina. A
temple to Jupiter was erected on the site of the Jewish Temple
on Moriah, and the city was adorned with colonnades and
various fine edifices. Its walls ran, in all probability, on exactly
the same lines as do those of the modern city (compare dia-
grams 178 and 179).

The diagrams shewing the courses of the different torrent-
beds traversing the rock-site of Jerusalem, and also the extent
of the city-walls during various periods of its history, were
drawn over photographically reduced copies of a plan shewing
the position of the walls of the modern city; and given to
the writer several years ago by the late Dr. Merrill, United
States Consul, Jerusalem.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

Here our Walks through the streets, and about the walls
of modern Jerusalem, must end. Our observations on things
noteworthy have been by no means exhaustive. In the vicinity,
though further afield, there are many places and monuments,
such as Gethsemane, Olivet, Bethany, the traditional Tombs
of the Kings, Judges and Prophets, and the Convent of the
Cross, Aceldama, etc., of which full descriptions may be found
in every Palestinian guide-book, and Syrian tourist's journal.

We have sketched the changes by which the city attained
its present area within the walls, and noted most of the still
extant relics of different periods in its chequered history. Jer-
usalem, as we have seen, has been for 4,000 years past under-
going a process of evolution and development. The transition
is still in progress, and has by no means reached its last
stage. When the writer first entered it as a child the Holy
City was a torpid little Eastern town, consisting chiefly of
ruinous, mainly one-storied old vaulted buildings occupying
parts only of the space enclosed within the mouldering grey
and brown sixteenth-century walls; whilst the other portions

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

were bare and waste fields of ruins, and the outside desert
stretched up to the jealously guarded city-gates. Now all
this is changed. Stately stone buildings, churches, convents,
hospitals, schools, hotels and dwelling-houses fill up not only
the area within the walls, but a large extent of country all
around, for Jerusalem has become a large bustling and still
growing city, whose gates are now "open continually," and
"not shut day nor night." If this were all, we might think that
it is merely passing again through one of those prosperous
periods or phases of its history which have been more than
once repeated during Roman, Byzantine, and even Saracenic
pre-Turkish times. But there is one feature of its present con-
dition by which it is specially distinguished from former ones.
This is the predominantly, and steadily growing Jewish element
in its population.

No Jews were allowed to reside within the walls of ./Elia
Capitolina, nor even in the Holy City of Constantine's time.
The favour shewn them by Julian the Apostate, who (A.D.
362), suggested and encouraged an abortive attempt to re-build
the Temple, was not continued under his successors. The
Moslems were more tolerant than they, but the Crusaders,
always glad of an opportunity or a pretext for ill-treating the
Jews and "sacrificing them to their father the devil, for the
honour of the Cross and the Church," discouraged their resi-
dence in Palestine. In 1163, when Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela,
visited the country, its whole Jewish population amounted only
to 1,900, all counted, and everyone poor, as compared with the
large and prosperous communities in neighbouring Moslem
states, for instance, 3,000 "many of whom were rich and learned
men" at Damascus; "2,000 warlike and independent Jews" at
Palmyra; and 3,000 in the important mercantile town of Alex-
andria. At this time there were only 200 Jews, dyers, in Jerusalem,
and they lived "under the tower of David," close to the present
Jewish quarter within the walls. They were considered inferior
to the Moslems, and by the laws of the Latin Kingdom were
not allowed to hold any land (Rey, "Colonies Franques," page
104; Conder, "Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem," page 242). In
1187 A.D., that is twenty years, after Rabbi Benjamin's visit, we
find the Jewish community restricted to the out-of-the-way
"Juiverie" or Ghetto in the N.E. corner of Jerusalem, behind and
north of St. Anne's Abbey. With the expulsion of the Crusaders
from the city their condition seems to have improved greatly,
so that in 1227 A.D., i.e., forty years later, we find Nachmanides

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

acquiring the well-preserved ruins of St. Martin's Church, on
the site of the present Great Perushim synagogue, for his
people; and restoring it as a Jewish place of worship; owing
to the Hebrews of the Holy Land having been strengthened by
the arrival of numerous immigrants, headed, in A.D. 1201, by a
party of some 300 rabbis from France and England. (Lunez's
"Jerusalem," 1881, Chronological table, page 2). This purchase
of St. Martin's took place just two years before Frederic II.
obtained possession of Jerusalem by treaty, but the conditions
made by a liberally-minded prince, who was on friendly terms
with the Moslems who took Jerusalem in order to spite the
pope, and had the monks of Acre flogged through the streets
during Holy Week, were such as must have seemed most
pleasant to a community accustomed to incessant insult and
outrage at the hands of Papist Christians. In 1492 A.D. the
Jewish colony at Jerusalem was further strengthened by the
arrival of refugees from Spain, and in 1846, when Rabbi Schwarz
wrote his account of the Holy Land, he tells us (page 23) that
there were then 8,000 Jews in Jerusalem, out of a total Jewish
population of 28,000 in the whole of Palestine. Now the Jewish
element in Jerusalem is about eight times what it was then.
The city is, to a great extent, Jewish. This is especially
noticeable on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, when Hebrew
shops are closed; and as the peasantry do not find it worth
their while to bring their farm produce to market on that day,
the public thoroughfares generally regain the quiet Sabbath-air
brought about originally by the influence of Nehemiah (chap,
xiii. 20—21) B.C. 445.

This remarkable re-gathering of the Jews to their ancient
capital is very suggestive and cannot fail to rouse the attention
of every thoughtful student of the Bible. It undoubtedly seems
to indicate that the prophetic utterances concerning the final
return of the Jews to their own land are being fulfilled literally,
in our own days, and under our very eyes. They are returning
(in unbelief, it is true), but actually re-peopling "the old wastes,
the desolations of many generations." These things should
incite us not only to take an interest in the history and relics
of the Jerusalem of the past, but eagerly to work with all our
powers and talents for the welfare of the Jerusalem and its
people of the present day, in full confidence that the Jerusalem
of the future will be great and glorious, and the time fast

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approaching when, according to His gracious and faithful prom-
ise, the Lord will "arise, and have mercy upon Zion; for the
time to favour her, yea, the set time is come."

"Already earth begins to hear

Old prophet-tones with int'rest new,
And long foretold events appear
Swiftly unfolding to the view;
And Zion's hope, so long deferred,
Hastes to its glad fulfilment, when
According to His faithful word,
God will remember her again."

(Writer unknown).

238

APPENDIX I.

|EAVING the Jaffa Gate one passes the great pile
of grey buildings which form the modern citadel
of Jerusalem, on our left, and immediately after-
wards drives down the road along the eastern side
of the traditional valley of Gihon. We have on
our left the steep declivity of the traditional Zion,
crowned with the southern extension of the western walls of
the modern city, the towers of which, at this point, are for
some reason or legend as yet unascertained, known as the
towers of Ghazza. Just beyond these towers, which end at the
south-west corner of the city, are various Christian cemeteries
and Bishop Gobat's school, the latter built upon the great rock-
cut bases of ancient towers and the rock-scarp of the city of
Jebusite times.

On the other side of the road one passes the Jewish settlement
of Jorat el Anab, so called from a -small grove of zizyphus or ju-
jube trees on the spot; next, the old aqueduct from Solomon's
pools, restored, as attested by a now half buried and undated
Arabic inscription, by the Sultan Mohammed Ibn Kelann, one of
the Baharite dynasty of Egypt, who reigned between 693 and 741
of the Hejira (A.D. 1293—1340). The arches, now buried but clearly
visible a few years ago, over which this aqueduct crosses the
valley, are, however, mentioned six centuries earlier by Arcul-
phus, who visited Palestine in A.D. 697. This aqueduct, which
is known as the "lower level one," to distinguish it from the
great Roman work, traces of which we pass later on, and
which was probably originally constructed by Pilate,* was still
in use till about twenty years ago, and conducted water to the
Temple-area. It is now a ruin, and a scanty supply reaches the
fountain lower down the valley, and also the Temple-area,
through four-inch iron pipes laid down four years ago.

The Jewish settlements stretch up the hill-side on the western
slope of the valley as far as the olive-groves (amongst which is
the recently discovered mausoleum of the Herodian family) — and
the Montefiore almshouses, with a ruined windmill at the back;

* Josephus, Antiq. xviii. iii. 2.

239

APPENDIX I.

whilst in the bed of the valley one passes a huge enclosure,
nearly six hundred feet long, and called "Birket Es Sultan" by the
natives, though local guides point it out to tourists as the lower
pool of Gihon, a name which is wrongly applied. Though first
mentioned about 1170 as the German lake, probably because
the great open cistern in its lower (southern) end is supposed
to have been constructed by the German knights, it is doubtless
a work of very great antiquity. The cistern is used to collect
the rain-water from the adjacent rock terraces, and the waste
from the above-mentioned iron pipes. Horses are washed, and
Arab boys bathe in it, and then the stagnant, evil-smelling fluid

(180) The Citadel of Jerusalem.

is pumped into water-carts and used to water the roads. Though
the dust is laid, yet the benefit is counterbalanced by the sick-
ening smells, and the mosquitoes, which doubtless cause much
of the fever prevalent at Jerusalem during the summer months.

In the upper part of the great Birket, a cattle market, or fair,
is held every Friday (see illustration 182), whilst on other days,
the terraces seen in the foreground of the picture are occupied,
by picturesque groups of people hard at work in crushing pot-
sherds, by rolling great rounded stones to and fro over them in
order to make "hamra," with which rain-water cisterns are
cemented. The carriage-road runs round the southern end of

240

APPENDIX I.

the pool, over the dam seen in the picture, and past the i6th
century fountain built upon its centre. Here at certain hours of
the day poor people are allowed in summer to fill their vessels
from taps fed by the iron pipes, whilst a pompous Arabic inscrip-
tion (illustration 183) informs us that "this blessed 'sebil' was
built by orders of our lord the great Sultan and magnificent
Khakan, the Sultan of the Arabs and Persians and Roum (the
Grae co-Romans), the Sultan Soleiman Khan, son of the Sultan
Selim Khan, at the date of the year four and forty and nine
hundred." The date agrees with those on the present city gates
and walls built by the same Solomon the Magnificent, A.D.
1536—42.

(181) Jorat el Anab.

As one rapidly turns round to the western side of the valley,
one looks down eastward into the valley of Hinnom (illustration
184), catching a glimpse of the Yemenite settlement at Siloam.

A winding ramp, or ascent, on the right leads to the road
cut, probably by Justinian's engineers, through the solid rock in
order to enable the great columns of rose-coloured limestone for
that Emperor's buildings in the Temple-area to be conveyed by
oxen-drawn carts to their destination; and directly afterwards,
we pass on the left that most valuable institution, the British
Ophthalmic Hospital of the Knights of St. John (illustration 182),
where thousands of patients, including many Jews, find relief.

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

A few minutes later finds one rapidly passing the railway-
station and German colony on our right, and the Hill of Evil
Counsel, with the traditional tree on which Judas hanged himself
on our left, into the traditional plain of Rephaim, which of late

(182) Birket es Sultan, shewing Cattle Market, Cistern,
Dam and Fountain, and British Ophthalmic Hospital.

years has been parcelled out into plots, where houses are being
now rapidly built, and trees and vines planted everywhere.
Thirty years ago there was here a great open plain, bare except
when the summer crops were on, and where any day you might

242

APPENDIX I.

see herds of gazelles racing along till out of gun-shot range,
and then stopping to look at the passer-by. Now, owing to the
railway and enclosure walls, they are no longer to be met with
hereabouts. A ruin in the middle of the plain, to the left of the
road, is said by peasant tradition to have been a country-house
belonging to the petty tyrant Sheik Abderrahman El Khalily,
who in the early part of last century ruled this district with great
despotism.

(183) Mural Inscription of Soleiman the
Magnificent.

About a mile away, on a hill-top to the west, one notices
Katamon, the country seat of the Orthodox Greek Patriarch,
where a chapel has been built over what the Greeks believe to
be the grave of the aged Simeon (St. Luke ii. 25, etc.) On
the higher range behind, and a couple of miles from where one
stands, one sees the Moslem village of Malha perched on its hill-
top. The sheikh of this village has, it is said, a room fitted up
with European furniture and a piano, the gift of the railway
company as a token of obligation for help received from him
during the construction of the line from Jaffa. No one in the
village can play the piano, or ever uses the furniture, still, to

243

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

have a room fitted up in European style is considered a mark of
distinction. Away to the S.W. one notices the bare hill-tops of
the mountains of Bether (Cant. ii. 17), and nearer at hand, about
half a mile distant, the white stone houses and blue smoke of
Beit-Sufafa, which was once an appanage of the Knights Hos-
pitallers, which one writer on Palestine (Williams' "Holy City,"
vol. i. p. 69) identifies, rightly or wrongly, with "the Sapha of
Josephus, where Alexander the Great on his march from Gaza
to Jerusalem, with the avowed purpose of destroying the latter
city, encountered a host arrayed in other arms than he was
accustomed to march; the whole multitude of the Jewish people,

(184) The Valley of Hinnom.

clothed in white, with garlands in their hands— the priests in
their sacred vestments of fine linen, headed by the high priest,
arrayed in his robes of purple and scarlet, and the mitre with
the golden plate emblazoned with the incommunicable name of
the God of Israel: — and, on beholding them, the humbled mon-
arch, to the amazement of all his retinue, approached alone,
prostrated himself before that Name, saluted the representative
of the Most High, and promised protection to the Holy City,
where His Presence dwelt."

Thus, everywhere, as one proceeds on one's journey, one finds
interesting associations, some historical and others legendary or

244

APPENDIX I.

traditional, or specially invented for credulous pilgrims. Here,
on the right, is an enclosed olive-grove with a large house built
in it on the spot where, according to the Greeks, Benjamin was
born (Gen. xxxv. 16 — 18), and therefore called "Kasr Benjamin"
— whilst an ancient cistern on the left, its mouth enclosed within
the circle of a stone pipe from Pilate's aqueduct, is pointed out
as the Well of the Wise Men, because it is said to mark the
spot where, after leaving Herod, they to their "exceeding great
joy" recognised, by its reflection in the water, the guiding star

(185) Judas' Tree.

which they had lost sight of when they turned aside to Jerusalem
to seek direction at the Temple-gate and in the Palace-hall.

After halting to breathe one's horses at the convent of St.
Elias, where, under the united shadows of an ancient olive-tree
and a modern telegraph pole, pilgrims are shewn the depression
made in the surface of the rock by the weight of the weary
Tishbite (when he rested under a juniper-tree in the wilderness
of Beer-Sheba, three days' journey to the south of us!), a fresh
start is made, and almost immediately afterward one gets the

245

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

first glimpse of the truncated cone of the Frank Mountain, or
the Herodium, where Herod the Great was buried, and where
his grave may probably yet be discovered; and also of Bethle-
hem (illustration 190).

After passing Et Tantoor, where a Roman Catholic order sup-
ports a hospital; and the field of peas which were turned into
stone because the owners refused some to the Virgin; and where,
about 1857, the last fierce fight occurred between some Turkish
troops and the Ta'amireh Bedouin, one halts at Rachel's tomb,
the appearance of which is changed (illustration 186) since the
Bedouin graveyard adjoining it was walled in.

246

APPENDIX I.

In former years at this place, before the present good carriage
road was made, it was customary for the Jews to come out and
stay overnight, and the L.J.S. missionaries were wont to pitch
tents close by, where they received Jewish and other visitors,
with whom they often had most profitable intercourse. Now-
adays, however, it is no longer worth while doing this, as the
Jews come here for an hour or so, only just long enough to per-
form their devotions, and then hasten back to Jerusalem. The
building consists of a whitewashed "ewan" or hall, used as a
mosque, and therefore furnished with a "mihrab," prayer-niche,

(187) Dislocated Stone Pipes of Roman Syphon.

to shew Moslems the direction of Mecca, and, connected with
the hall by a door, an inner and dome-covered chamber, in the
centre of which is a great block of masonry plastered over and
whitewashed, which is the cenotaph covering the matriarch's
tomb. Here Hebrew prayers are gabbled over, not in unison, but
every one according to his or her own time and liking. One can
often see Jews passing long threads of divers coloured wool
round the cenotaph, and reeling off others which have already
been passed round it, and which, having been thus hallowed, are
then considered as most efficacious for use as amulets to protect
sick persons, especially women, from danger. There are a great

247

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

many oil lamps burning in the room, and the general atmosphere
is often so bad that one is glad to escape into the open again.
Just beyond Rachel's tomb the road bifurcates, a branch
turning off to the left towards Bethlehem, and in the fork thus
formed there have been found traces of Pilate's great aqueduct
already mentioned. Just at this point it crosses the valley by
a syphon formed of huge blocks of perforated stone, or stone
pipes (illustration 187). Some of these have been recently broken
out of their places and smashed up, whilst on some of those that
have been spared the writer has had the satisfaction of detecting

(188) Lower Pools of Solomon.

traces of ancient Latin inscriptions, which, when examined by
competent authorities, turned out to be the names of centurions
who had command of the different bands of workmen who con-
structed the aqueduct. Similar Latin inscriptions have been
found in England on the ruins of Roman fortifications.

Proceeding on one's journey one passes the great olive-groves
that lie between Bethlehem and Beit Jala, a large Christian vil-
lage which is identified by various authorities with the Zelah
or Zelzah of the books of Joshua and i Samuel (Josh, xviii. 28;
i Sam. x. 2), and the Giloh of Ahithopel's story (2 Sam. xv., xvi.,
xvii.) The population, mostly Christians, and originally of the

248

APPENDIX I.

Greek Church, are notorious, like those of many other Pales-
tinian and Syrian Christian villages, for the readiness with which
not only individuals but whole families exchange one form of
Christianity for another whenever circumstances (such as the
likelihood of obtaining the protection of some foreign consulate,
or getting their military taxes paid), seem to render such a
change advisable. As far back as the early days of the London
Jews' Society's first missionaries in Palestine, we read in the
journals of Dr. Wolff as f olio ws :— "The people of Beit Shallah
offered to me to embrace the faith of the Inglees if I would pay
1,500 piastres (less than £15 sterling) tribute to the Pasha of

(189) Upper Pools and Frank Mountain.

Damascus"; and "soon after the arrival of the Anglican Bishop
(Alexander) in Jerusalem, they offered themselves, through their
sheikh, as Protestant converts; but as no negotiation was entered
upon, the sum required for this transaction — or transition — must
remain unknown." (Williams' "Holy City," vol. ii., page 572, text
and footnote). Under such circumstances it is not a matter of
surprise that in our day both Latin and other missions should
have been most successful in proselytizing from amongst the
ranks of the Orthodox Greeks at Beit Jala, and that more than
one imposing "mission" school and church are conspicuous
amongst its stone buildings.

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WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

The country around Bethlehem and Beit Jala is very remark-
able for its productiveness, and, during recent years, many of
the once bare hillsides have been reclaimed, terraced, and planted
with olives, figs and vines, the verdure of which makes the land-
scape very beautiful. Leaving behind us the large new Pro-
testant German Orphanage, in which children of victims of the
Armenian massacres are cared for, one soon comes in sight of
the village of El Khadr or Mar Jirius (St. George) to the left. The
great building conspicuously towering above the fellah dwelling
is a church and convent of the saint of that name, and people

(190) Bethlehem and the Frank Mountain.

from the whole countryside bring such of their relatives as may
be insane to this place to be cured, as described in the Jewish
Missionary Intelligence, 1889, page 68. A few minutes later one
passes the well-known Pools of Solomon (illustrations 188 and
189).

Concerning this remarkable place, one can only say that the
old Saracenic castle guarding the pools and springs is, it is
believed, the direct lineal representative, in all probability, firstly,
of the tower of Edar (or the flocks, Genesis xxxv. 21); and sec-
ondly, and at a much later date, of the habitation of Chimham
(Jeremiah xli. 17). In the Ain Atan, one of the four springs rising

250

APPENDIX I.

in its proximity, one may easily recognise the name Etam, which
was that of the fountain whose waters supplied the Temple at
Jerusalem, and also of the city Etam of Judah, mentioned as a
town which, lying apparently between Bethlehem and Tekoa-Re-
hoboam, and fortified together with them and others (2 Chron. xi.
6), is probably identical with the ruin "Khirbet el Khoch." One
passes this on the way from the pools to the village and beauti-
ful valley of Artass, with its peach, pear and other fruit orchards
and vegetable gardens winding away eastward, like a river of
verdure between high and barren limestone hills toward the now
desolate and utterly ruined site of Herodium. This place received

(191) Church and Convent of Sisterhood of the
"Hortus Conclusus."

its water supply through the rock-hewn aqueducts, the traces of
which may easily be followed along either side of the valley.

The name Artass, or Urtass, is said to be a derivative or a
corruption from the Latin "Hortus," and was given to the place
in mediaeval times, because it is supposed to be identical with
that where Solomon had his famous gardens at Etham (see
Josephus' Antiq. viii. ch. vii. § 3; and Ecclesiastes ii. 5, 6).
During the Crusading period it probably belonged, at least in
part, to the Knights Hospitallers. At the head of a valley coming
in from the south-west there exists to this day the luin of a great
building, on one of the stones of which can be noticed a
well-carved cross of the famous military brotherhood. As this

251

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

ruin is called Deir el Benat, i.e., "Convent of the Maidens," it
is conjectured that the ruin may have been a nunnery belonging
to the sisterhood which is known to have been connected with
the order. Just where the valley above mentioned joins the
Wady Artass, a nunnery and church have been recently built
inside an enclosure (illustration 191). The nuns, who hail from
South America, call themselves "the Sisters of the Hortus Con-
clusus," i.e., the Bnclosed Garden, the reference being to the
passage in the Song of Solomon, in which (iv. 12) he compares
his beloved to such a garden. The institution is ostensibly an
orphanage for American Catholic girls, besides which, the sisters
do some dispensing and nursing amongst the fellahin. When
they first settled at Artass a few years ago, they tried to make
proselytes of the two or three European Protestant women living
in the place. When a year or two ago, the C.M.S. ladies working
at Bethlehem started a little sewing class for Moslem girls in
a room which some people were able to spare in their dwelling,
the nuns succeeded in stirring the Khatib, or Moslem preacher,
who till then had been friendly, to give trouble.

If the unwritten, or traditionary history of this part of the
country is to be credited, the Moslem village of Artass was an
important place during the latter part of the i6th century and for
a long time after. When Soleiman the Magnificent constructed
or restored the lower-level aqueduct from the pools to Jerusalem,
he is said, by the peasantry, to have exempted the Artasihs (or
Artasses) from the payment of any taxes, on the condition that
they were to guard the aqueduct and pools and keep them in
repair.

Many who are interested in the modern Jewish agricultural
colonies in Palestine, may perhaps not be aware of the fact
that the first germ of these was undoubtedly "The Agricultural
Manual Labour School," a work of faith started in Artass some
fifty-five years ago by a band of American enthusiasts, led by a
lady named Mrs. Minor, and in co-operation with Mr. Meshullam,
a Hebrew Christian, some of whose children still own gardens
and houses in the beautiful valley. The first report of the institu-
tion was printed in America. It was entitled "Tidings from Jeru-
salem," and passed through several editions.

252

APPENDIX II.

The Vessels and Furniture of the Temple
of Jerusalem.

|HE question as to the present location of the Holy
vessels belonging to God's Temple at Jerusalem,
and more especially of the Ark of the Covenant,
which is known not to have been carried to Babylon
by Nebuchadnezzar, about 600 B.C., but has never
been, so far as we possess any record, seen since,
is one that still awaits answer.

According to 2 Mace. ii. 4 — 7, the tabernacle, the ark, and
the altar of incense, were, by Divine command, hidden by
Jeremiah the prophet in a cave on Mount Nebo, and "as for
that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather
His people again together, and receive them unto mercy"; in
consequence of which statement, about fifty years ago the
leader of a small German sect, having settled his followers in
the Holy City, started off alone on a pedestrian tour to Moab,
in search of it, and has not been heard of since.

There are those who believe the ark to be buried somewhere
in Jerusalem, and some years ago, there was submitted to the
writer of these notes, for perusal, a very learned essay, written
in German, to prove that it will be found buried under the
ruined charnel-house of the Knights of St. John at the traditional
Aceldama. In order to demonstrate the correctness of his
theory, the erudite author, a Swede, came here in person,
armed with a spade, in order to dig for the relic. As he only
stayed here a short time, and no more has been heard of him,
it is presumed that he was not particularly successful.

As to the rest of the Temple furniture, everybody knows
that the consecrated vessels that were saved from the con-
flagration of the second Temple, A.D. 70, were carried by Titus
to Rome as trophies, and displayed in his triumphal procession,
after which they were portrayed on the monumental Arch still
bearing the conqueror's name, and the preservation of which
bears witness to the truthfulness of Josephus, and teaches the
danger of slighting and mis-using religious privileges. The

253

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

subsequent history of the furniture thus taken to Rome is
very interesting. The golden vessels and instruments were
laid up in Vespasian's Temple of Concord, whilst the scrolls
of the law and the purple veils were deposited in the Imperial
palace. In the reign of Hadrian, the golden plate engraved
with the Name of the Eternal, which had adorned the forehead
of the high priest, was seen at Rome by Rabbi Eleazar, the
son of Joses, a contemporary of Rabbi Akiba, A.D. 135.

(192) Ancient Bronze Vessel found in Cyprus.

In the twelfth year of Commodus, A.D. 191, both the Temple
of Concord and the Imperial palace were, it is said, destroyed
by fire, and many varied and costly treasures perished in the
flames. It appears, however, that the sacred vessels of the
House of God were rescued, as in the fifth century we find
them often and unhesitatingly mentioned (see Williams' "Holy
City," Vol. i. page 191, and footnotes). We may conclude that
they had been saved from destruction, and securely laid up in
the public treasury at Rome, where they were found when
Alaric, king of the Goths, plundered Rome, A.D. 410. He does
not seem to have removed them all; for when, forty-five years

254

APPENDIX II.

later, Genseric, king of the Vandals, sacked the Eternal City,
among the other spoils he carried to Africa, were the holy
vessels of the Jewish worship, which remained in Carthage
nearly eighty years, till the victory of Belisarius restored them
again to the Romans, A.D. 455.

That portion of them, however, which had been, as above
related, taken by Alaric, was carried to Carcassonne in
Languedoc.

Many of them are said to have been adorned with green
stone, and their fame exposed the place to a vigorous siege
by the army of Clovis. It was, however, unsuccessful, and
when the town was relieved by Theodoric the Goth, the res-
cued treasures were, apparently, carried to Ravenna, and nothing
more is known about them.

Those which were recovered from Carthage by Belisarius,
were exhibited in a triumphal procession at Constantinople ;
just as, four and a half centuries earlier, they had been at
Rome itself.

This fact of their having been thus displayed at Constantinople
is attested by Procopius (De Bello Vandalico, lib. ii. ch. g,
vol. i., page 255), who was secretary to the Emperor Justinian,
and an eye-witness. He relates, circumstantially, that a certain
Jew, having noticed the sacred vessels amongst the spoils, told
one of the Emperor's officers, that they could not be brought
into the palace without grave danger, nor be safely kept any-
where but at the place where Solomon had originally dedicated
them. He represented that it was for this reason that Genseric
had been allowed to take Rome, and that in turn the Vandals
had been conquered by the Romans. Frightened by this state-
ment, Justinian immediately sent them to Jerusalem, where he
had built two churches (those of the Divine Wisdom, and of
St. Mary), within the area of the ancient Temple, as well as
others elsewhere. There is some reason for thinking that
they may have been carried off again, this time by the Persians,
who, in A.D. 614, took and plundered the Holy City; but there
is not sufficient proof for this opinion, and two different local
traditions point to their still being hidden in the Holy City.
In the first place we have the fact that no orthodox Jew resident
in Jerusalem will dare to set foot inside the ancient Temple-
precincts, because he believes that the sacred vessels are still
buried there, and if he be so unfortunate as to tread over
the spot his death will ensue during the course of the year.

255

WALKS ABOUT JERUSALEM

In the second place, we have the popular local Christian
statement that somewhere under the pile of buildings con-
nected with the Church of the Sepulchre there is a secret vault
containing, beside the holy vessels, untold treasures. In con-
versation with the late Dr. Schick, who was a most competent
authority, the writer of these notes was informed that such a
vault really exists. It was described as being provided with
a heavy iron door, which is hidden behind some painted work,
and is provided with three locks, each of which is closed by a
special and different key. Each of these three keys is in the
charge of a different bishop of the orthodox Greek Church, and
the vault cannot be opened until these three dignitaries agree
to meet together for the purpose, each producing his own key.*

Whether these popular ideas be correct or not, it is unfor-
tunate for the authenticity of these interesting relics, — which,
as we have seen, have travelled from Asia to Europe and Africa,
and back again to Asia, — that the author of the book of Macca-
bees clearly describes the complete spoliation of the sacred
treasury at Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes about 170 B.C.,
and that he carried the spoils to Antioch. Amongst them special
mention is made of the golden candlestick, the table of shew-
bread, the golden altar of incense, the vials and flagons, the
golden censers and precious vessels, as well as the veils of
scarlet and fine linen. Nor is there any doubt that such sacred
vessels as were returned from Babylon, and those that had
been dedicated by Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 285, fell into
his hands; for we are expressly told that "he emptied the
Temple of its secret treasures, and left nothing at all remaining,"
and we nowhere find any evidence that these vessels were
subsequently restored. On the contrary, we learn from i Mace.
v. 48 — 51, and Josephus, Ant. xii. vii. 6, that Judas Maccabaeus,
on the purification of the Temple, after its desecration, pro-
vided it with new vessels and altars and veils, and these there-
fore, must have been those which were taken into Rome by
Titus, the fortunes of which we have told.

Whether these or indeed any of Solomon's or Herod's
vessels for the service of the Sanctuary still exist, is a matter
of serious doubt, but a recent discovery in Cyprus has aroused
great interest amongst antiquarians, as it proves that in other
places furniture and vessels of analagous pattern to those of

* This reminds us of an incident that occurred in Crusading times, for which see
Besant and Palmer's "History of Jerusalem," chapter xiv. page 384.

256

APPENDIX II.

the Jewish Temple were in use and may yet be discovered,
especially if made of bronze or copper.

Bible students will remember that in Solomon's Temple,
besides the great brazen sea, there were ten round lavers of
brass, placed on square and wheeled bases (i Kings vii. 27 — 39).
Five of these were ranged on the northern and five along the
southern side of the court of the priests, and used for
washing the sacrifices (2 Chron. iv. 6; Josephus Ant. VIII. iii. 6).
The bases themselves were mutilated by Ahaz, and carried
away as plunder, or at least what remained of them, by Nebu-
zaradan, after the capture of Jerusalem (2 Kings xvi. 17; xxv. 13).
No mention is made of their existence in the second Temple,
and therefore we may assume that they never were restored.

During recent excavations in Cyprus three curious bronze
vessels were discovered, two of them exactly answering in their
general features to those above described. The third differed
in its having a triangular instead of a square base. Of the two
first, one is said now to be in the British Museum. It is de-
scribed as being in a defective condition, the wheels being
destroyed as well as part of the structure. Its side-ornamenta-
tion shews female figures looking out of casements. The other
is ,splendidly preserved, though covered with green patina or
copper rust, proving its antiquity. It was till lately, perhaps is
still, in the possession of Mr. Caremfilaki, of Larnaka. Though
in its dimensions it is much smaller than those described in
Scripture, in shape and ornamentation, as shewn in illustration
192 (a reproduction from the drawing in Professor Furtwangler's
official report* in the Transactions of the Royal Bavarian
Academy of Science at Munich), it is practically identical, except
that the four birds at the corners do not seem to be mentioned
in Scripture.

* Ueber ein auf Cypern gefundenes Bronze-gerat. Ein Beitrag Zur Erklarung der
Kultgerate des Salomonichen Tempels. Von A. Furtwangler. Vorgetragen in der
Philos-Philol. Klase der K. Bayer Akad. d. Wiss. Miinchen.

257

WORKS OF REFERENCE QUOTED FROM OR
MENTIONED IN THE TEXT

The Bible.
Josephus' Works.

Majr ed din's "Uns el Jelil" (Arabic >
Cairo Edition.

Sale's Koran — Chandos' Classics' Edition.

Palestine Exploration Fund's Memoirs-
Jerusalem volume.

Do. Do. Quarterly Statements.
Do. Do. Recovery of Jerusalem.

Do. Do. Prof. Clermont Gann-
eau's Archaeological Researches."

Ordnance Survey Map of Jerusalem
(1864-5).

Dr. Schick's "Beit el Makdas."

Tenz's "Jerusalem, Ancient and Modern."

Dr. Merrill's "Ancient Jerusalem."

Thrupp's "Antient Jerusalem."

Lewin's "Siege of Jerusalem."

I Tasting's Bible Dictionary.

Crusader's Almanac for 1906.

Prothero — The Psalms in Human Life.

Matthew Paris --- i\V. Watt's edition —
Hodgkinson, London. 1640).

Saewulf— Pilgrim Society's version.
Bonn's "Early Travels in Palestine."
Robinson's "Biblical Researches."
Williams' "Holy City."

L. J. S. "Jewish Intelligence." and
Jewish Missionary Intelligence."

Luncz's "Jerusalem," 1881.

Rey's "Colonies Franques."

R. Schwarz's "Das Heilige Land."

Mommert's "Golgotha."

Sir C. Wilson's "Golgotha."

Zuallardo's Travels.

Dr. Munro Gibson in "Glimpses of
Bible Lands."

Lane's "Modern Egyptians."
Norman Chronicle.

Dr. Russell Forbes' "The Holy City
Jerusalem."

Dr. Barclay's "City of the Great King."
Ali Bey's Travels.

Jerome on Isaiah and Zephaniah.

R. Benjamin of Tudela— Bohn's Edition.

Edersheim's "Temple etc.." and "Life
of Jesus the Messiah.

Lightfoot's "Horae Hebricae," and "Pros
pect of the Temple, etc."

Hanauer's "Folk-Lore of the Holy Land."
and "Tales told in Palestine."

Prof. Hayter Lewis's "Holy Places of
Jerusalem."

Eutychii Annalcs— Pilgrim Text Society'
version.

Antoninus Martyr Do. Do.

Hunter's "History of the War in Syria."

Besant and Palmer's "History of Jeru-
salem."

Colonel Conder's "Latin Kingdom of
Jerusalem."

Colonel Conder's "The First Bible."

Sir W. M. Ramsay's "Letters to the
Seven Churches."

Conversion of Father Ratisbonne — Gran-
ville Popular Library.

Benjamin Scotl's "Contrasts and Teach-
ings of the Catacombs."

Felix Fabri - - Pilgrim Text Society's
version.

Talmudic treatises "Middoth" and "Taan-
ith" (in P.E.J. Quarterly Statements.

Hovenden's Chronicle - - Ap. Savile's
"Scriptores Angl."

259

SPECIAL SCRIPTURE REFERENCES.

Genesis xlix. 27, p. 204.
Leviticus ii. 13, p. 186.
Numbers xvi. 12, p. 108.

,, xviii. 19, p. 1 86.
Judges i. 7—8, p. 226.

,, xix. ic — 12, p. 227.
II Samuel v. 8, p. 227.

xxiv. 18—25, p. 183.

I Kings vii. 27—39, p. 243.

viii. 23—24, p. 223.
xi. 27, p. 228.

II Kings x. 27, p. 73-

xvi. 17, p. 243
xx. 20, p. 34-
xxiii. 13, P- 74-
xxv. 13, P- 243.

I Chronicles xxi. 18—28, p. 183.

II Chronicles iv. 6, p. 243.

xxvi. 9, P- 229-
,, xxvii. 3, P- 229-
xxxii. 5, p. 229.
xxxii. 30, pp. 34, 119, 121.
,, xxxiii. 14, p. 229.
Ezra ix. 8, p. 102.
Nehemiah ii. 8, p. 224.
iii. 8, p. 79-
iii. 31, pp. 133, 138.
xii. 38, p. 79.
,, xiii. 20 — 21, p. 237.
Psalm Ixv. I, p. 229.

Ixxxiv. 7, P- 229.
xcvii. 22, p. 126.

Psalm cxviii. 22, p. 126.
Jeremiah xxii. p. 25.
Ezekiel xvi. 3—45, p. 226.
Daniel iii. 29, p. 73.
Micah i. 10 — 15, p. 73.
Zephaniah i. ii, p. 230.
Matthew iv. 5, p. 129.

,, x. 9 — 10, p. 109.
,, xxi. 15, p. 1^6.
„ xxi. 42, p. 126.
Mark vi. 8, p. 109.

ix. 50, p. 186.
Luke ix. 3, p. 109.
John iii. p. 212.

v. i— 18, p. 144.
,, John viii. p. 198.
,, xvii. 16, p. 93.
xix. 13, P. 155
Acts iii. 2 — 10, p. 138.

,, iv. i — 21, p. i£6.
,, v. 21 — 41, p. iS6.
vi. 12, p. 186.
vii. 57, p. 186.
xii. 1—15, 10—12, pp. 14, 91
xxi. 40, p. 223.
, xxiii. 2, pp. 8, 95.
Colossians iv. 6, p. 186.
Hebrews xii. 2, p. 229.
Revelation xiv. i, p. 229.

I Maccabees v. 48—51, p. 242.

II Maccabees x. 3, P- 184.

ii. 4—7. p- 239-

260

TRAVELS THROUGH
NORTHERN SYRIA

By the REV. J. SEGALL

Nearly 100 illustrations

CONTENTS

Part I. A Visit to Antioch and Aleppo.

Part II. A trip to the Convents of Saidnaya
and M alula.

(With Holy Scripture References)

Stiff Covers. Price I/- nett; post free 1/3

SOME

JEWISH WITNESSES
FOR CHRIST

By the REV. A. BERNSTEIN, B.D.

The aim of this book is to shew that there always
have been Christian Jews in every epoch of the
Church's history.

Cloth Bound. 535 pp.

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Most interesting Pamphlets
ONE PENNY EACH

THE JEW IN THE LAND OF
THE LION AND THE SUN

By the REV. C. S. STILEMAN

Secretary of Ch. of Eng. Zenana Missionary Society.

SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS

By the RIGHT REV. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D.

Bishop of Durham.

,.. ... m

G OD'S " WHOSOEVER "
INCLUDES THE JEW

By the REV. F. S. WEBSTER, M.A.

Rector of All Souls, Laneham Place, W.

HISTORY AND CONDITION OF
THE JEWISH NATION

By the REV. A. F. PAINTER, M.A.

THE RESTORATION OF THE
JEWS : Both Literal and Spiritual

By the REV. F. L. DENMAN, M.A.

THE JEWS IN PERSIA: Their
Past History and Present Condition

By the REV. J. L. GARLAND, M.A.

Printed in the City of London
at the Edinburgh Press

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